Gas Pump Skimming on the Rise

​WASHINGTON, D.C. – As many motorists are hitting the road over the July 4 holiday, the U.S. Secret Service announced an uptick in skimmers found in gas pumps, ABC News reports. Last weekend, the agency checked gas stations in 21 states for the devices and recovered 59 skimmers from 85 locations.

“What happens is you go to your local gas station, you put in your payment card, you pump your gas and you drive home,” said Matthew O’Neill, assistant to the special agent in charge of the agency’s Criminal Investigative Division. “But in what’s in reality happening is during that transmission process, a skimmer is acting in between where you put your card in and the point of sale terminal that’s transmitting the data to a financial institution, and they’re stealing your payment card numbers.”

The Secret Service estimated that millions of dollars…