Foiling Pump Skimmers With GPS

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/05/foiling-pump-skimmers-with-gps/

By Brian Krebs
Krebs on Security
May 4, 2015

Credit and debit card skimmers secretly attached to gas pumps are an 
increasingly common scourge throughout the United States. But the tables 
can be turned when these fraud devices are discovered, as evidenced by one 
California police department that has eschewed costly and time-consuming 
stakeouts in favor of affixing GPS tracking devices to the skimmers and 
then waiting for thieves to come collect their bounty.

One morning last year the Redlands, Calif. police department received a 
call about a skimming device that was found attached to a local gas pump. 
This wasn’t the first call of the day about such a discovery, but Redlands 
police didn’t exactly have time to stake out the compromised pumps. 
Instead, they attached a specially-made GPS tracking device to the pump 
skimmer.

At around 5 a.m. the next morning, a computer screen at the Redlands PD 
indicated that the compromised skimming device was on the move. The GPS 
device that the cops had hidden inside the skimmer was beaconing its 
location every six seconds, and the police were quickly able to determine 
that the skimmer was heading down a highway adjacent to the gas station 
and traveling at more than 50 MPH. Using handheld radios to pinpoint the 
exact location of the tracker, the police were able to locate the 
suspects, who were caught with several other devices implicating them in 
an organized crime ring.

[...]

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