Possible Credit Card Skimmer at Hilo Bayfront Texaco Station

Hilo HI

Description

An interesting thing happened to me this Christmas Eve. Around a dozen unauthorized charges, all identical, appeared on my debit card, and I had to open cases with the bank to have these charges removed. All-day fun during the holidays. Still keeping my fingers crossed. The charges totaled a bit under $1000, and kept coming every so often until I cancelled the card and reported it. Well, I hardly ever use this card. So it was not easy to trace back its last usage. It was at Hilo bayfront Texaco (formerly Chevron) gas station--inside the snack shop. End of November. Another interesting coincidence that immediately came to mind was that the worker, a young, apparently teenage Asian male who did the transaction was working the drive-thru window, and said he had to take my card and run it over there by the drive-thru window at that register. This act of handing your card over to anyone, anytime, is something you should never do, and that workers should never ask you to do. I knew this and felt uncomfortable, but since I come there often, and wanted to be polite/accommodating, I allowed it. NEVER EVER DO THIS FOR ANY REASON. If a clerk cannot let you do the transaction at the self-service kiosk/credit card machine, do not complete the transaction. Go elsewhere. PERIOD. Sooo... I had a bad feeling about this and got a weird gut feeling at the time and it was the first thing that I thought of. Of course it is POSSIBLE that this was not the source of the problem, but I am just recommending that people be extra careful. NEVER hand your card over to anyone at this location OR ANYWHERE for any reason. If you don't catch these unauthorized charges when your account gets hacked for 60 days (depending on bank), then you will be liable for the charges! The charges originated from Florida, confusingly, but the bank told me some people will use an excuse to take your card, run it through/over a scanner or chip reader, takes less than a second, and they sell these numbers on the deep web or online somewhere to the criminals who create the charges. That's how it works. Be careful and be warned.