 TITLE: How to Protect Yourself Against Card Skimmers at Gas Stations CONTENT: What Is Card Skimming?\n----------------------\nCredit card skimming involves thieves attaching devices on gas pumps, ATMs and other machines that read and gather your card information.\nSkimmers read the magnetic strip on the card, which gives fraudsters the full name on the card, the credit card number and the expiration date. Some thieves even hide small cameras to capture PIN numbers from those using debit cards. They can then either sell your information on the dark web or use it to steal your identity, charge up your credit card or even get access to the money in your bank account.\nIn the past, skimmers could be spotted if you knew to check. The scanner often looked like it was tampered with or it wiggled when you put the card in. Now skimmers are designed to fit snugly over the scanner, making it nearly impossible to tell something is not right.\n### Shimming the Chip Card\nSkimming isn't the only scam at the gas pump. Fraudsters can now target the computer chip embedded in most credit cards. Overall, the computer chip makes cards more secure and are supposed to prevent nefarious activity like skimming. But fraudsters and hackers are very good at staying one step ahead of security measures. Instead of skimming, some now turn to shimming.\nWith this method, a paper-thin device called a shim is inserted directly into the card reader slot (the one that holds your chip-enabled credit card). The shim is loaded with a microchip and flash storage that intercepts the information from the chip on your credit card. The stolen information can then be used to clone the old magnetic strip style of credit card (which are still in use, especially for online purchases).\nShimming is even more difficult to detect than skimming because inserting and removing the shim looks the same as someone inserting and removing a credit card. What makes them even more stealth is that fraudsters can just as easily use a shim inside the gas station's cash register when making another purchase as they can at the gas pump. It's an attack that's hard to catch.\nShimming is still a new practice. So far, it can't clone the CVV number on the card, so a cloned card is less likely to be used for any purchases that require that number. However, it's a good bet the fraudsters will figure out some way to better game the system. END