Two Secret Service agents came to the Comdata user conference in Orlando on Sept. 13 to warn fleet managers about fuel skimming, an illegal activity that costs the trucking industry millions every month.
Long before the Secret Service was tasked with protecting U.S. presidents, the agency was founded in 1865 to suppress counterfeiting. That mission continues today with investigating credit card fraud.
Fuel thieves are spreading rapidly along the I-10 corridor from Florida through Texas, Arizona and into California, they said. Most are immigrants from Cuba, via Miami, said Special Agent Roger Fuentes. “Guys who did drugs have switched to this. It is a lot less dangerous.”
“Fleet cards are gold to these individuals,” he added. “[Thieves] can purchase a larger quantity of fuel because fleet cards have a higher threshold.”
Fuel station skimming is a technique for stealing credit and debit card information from point-of-sale terminals at fuel pumps. A thief removes a card reader from a pump and installs a counterfeit version that has an embedded inline skimmer.
A skimmer is a small electronic device that reads the magnetic card stripe. The devices are sold on the dark web and even on eBay by suppliers in the Philippines, China and India, said Special Agent Larry Lomonaco.
