North Port police dismantle gas station skimmer

NORTH PORT, Fla. – A credit card skimmer was discovered at the Mobil gas station at 1050 Bobcat Trail off Toledo Blade Boulevard, police said Friday.

Skimmers have been removed from that gas station before, the North Port Police Department said. The Mobil station does not have alarms that deter criminals similar to those in place at neighborhood Walmart and Racetrak gas stations, police said.

No one’s information was compromised, police said.

Criminals can get information from an average of 100 people per skimmer at the more than 8,000 gas stations in Florida, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which worked with the North Port police to inspect fuel pumps throughout the city. Skimmers threaten a loss of $100,000 from Floridians, the department said. Once consumers’ credit card information is compromised, they lose about $1,000 on average.

The skimmer in North Port is one of the more than 250 skimmers removed from Florida gas stations in the past year.

The commissioner of the state department, Adam Putnam, worked with senators to enact an anti-skimmer law, which went into effect on Oct. 1. The law increased the severity of the crime and its punishment and required gas stations to do more to protect customers.

A state report from 2015 shows that Southwest Florida was hit four times in just one month by skimmers at the following locations:

• Lee County
  • Bruno’s Food Store/Citgo 15600 McGregor Blvd.
  • Estero Food Mart/Mobil 10371 Corkscrew Commons Dr.
  • Zain of Colonial/Sunoco 2562 Colonial Blvd
• Charlotte County
  • Lucky Marathon 4267 Tamiami Trail

If you think a gas pump has been tampered with, speak with the gas station manager, law enforcement or call the department’s consumer protection and information hotline at 1-800-HELP-FLA (435-7352) or, for Spanish speakers, 1-800-FL-AYUDA (352-9832).