AM/PM Skimming Scam

It's likely these are the folks who stole my debit card information. I only had the card a month, and so there weren't that many merchants I patronized in that time. AM/PM is at the top of that short list.:

It started as a routine check on a gasoline pump.

It blossomed into the unraveling of a suspected "skimming" scam that authorities believe was bilking $20,000 a day from Northern California debit and credit card holders, including $43,000 from customers at a Rocklin AM/PM service station.

Martinez police detectives on Feb. 26 arrested two Southern California men on suspicion of installing illegal data-capturing devices inside card readers at gasoline pumps. Police have recommended that prosecutors file 32 counts of identity fraud, conspiracy and enhanced charges related to gang activity.

"We don't think it's just these two guys," said Martinez Police Cmdr. Gary Peterson.

This kind of skimming is fairly rare, say law enforcement and retail experts. But it's a highly sophisticated crime that bedevils retailers who must balance security with service to customers who have come to enjoy the ease of swiping their plastic through card readers to pay for gasoline and a growing number of services and products.

Eleven skimming devices, each loaded with information for as many as 400 to 500 accounts, were found in the car in which David Karapetyan, 31, and Zhirayr Zamanyan, 30, were stopped by detectives from the Martinez Police Department.

Using keys that are standardized and widely available – much like keys to golf carts – the two suspects opened gas pumps and installed devices inside to capture information from the card readers, Peterson said. The process can be done quickly without arousing much suspicion, he said.

For the next driver who pulls up to the pump, there are no clues that anything is out of the ordinary.

Other types of skimming use miniature cameras to record strokes on the keypad or use devices attached around the card reader that could be spotted by careful observers.

Once the skimming devices are retrieved, information they have captured can be sold or used to make counterfeit debit and credit cards.

The ongoing Northern California scam was broken when an employee at a 7-Eleven store in Martinez was changing receipt tape at a pump and spotted a device inside, Peterson said. He called detectives, who replaced it with a decoy device and waited for someone to retrieve it.

Officers said they watched Karapetyan and Zamanyan remove the fake device, then followed and arrested them.

Because the two suspects were caught with a GPS device that had the addresses of "numerous" gasoline stations punched in, Peterson's department is waiting to hear from other service stations.

Service stations in the Sacramento area and other Bay Area cities have reported finding six skimming devices, Peterson said. He's gotten calls from authorities in Washington, Oklahoma and Texas who've had similar cases, but no links have been established with the local case.