Gas Pump Hijacked San Jose, CA area

was an interesting weekend to say the least… woke up friday to the state of CA having levied my acct for back registration on a car that was crushed 4 years back got them to reverse the levy but still took a 50 dollar hit from the credit union… thinking this was the end of my woes and that I could get a good restful weekend I went to bed.

come saturday morning I wake up to a voicemeail message from the Fraud Squad at the bank about a bunch of transactions that didn’t seem right and asking me If i was across town shopping at Walmart. I call them back and log onto the bank account to see I had been hit for almost 400 bucks. In speaking to them they informed me that my debit card info was probably hijacked at a gas pump so started a day of driving filing paperwork and a police report.

anyways, for anyone in the San Jose area, I am almost positive this happened at the 76 station at the corner of Santa Teresa and Cottle… it was a pump I never use but stopped at when dropping a friend off. it was the only station I have used the debit card as a credit card to get gas, and based on all the fraud transactions at Walmart in Milpitas, CA they showed up as pending transactions which is usually how credit card transactions are processed versus debit.

other reason I am suspect of that gas station was that while pumping gas the numbers on the pump did not run up smoothly or consistently like they should… usually a clear sign of a tampered pump which could be the station owner trying to gouge customers, or also a sign you just used a pump that has been tampered with.

Anyways I just want to pass this info to any other members in San Jose & greater SF Bay Area to be on the lookout. check your bank account daily… and do not leave stuff in your cars. with the holidayy season fast approaching there have been rashes of car breakins (2 people I know including my mother ) have had their vehicles cleanly broken into and cleaned out, and also a rise in the number of gas pump / atm hijacks in the area.

Maybe more people would see it in the general section. I agree that it is probably not the right place for it but I’m guessing it gets more visitors that the off topic forum would. Hmmmm

yea but it isn’t G2 specific so I didn’t want to post it there

People still leave valuables in their cars?

good looking out, thanks.

I’m always paranoid about ATM machines as well, checking for piggy back scanners and what not by the card reader. Havent been burned, yet. knock on wood

yeah well from what I have been able to gather it is near impossible to tell… especially on the AM/PM & Arco pumps. Apparently the station I use down the street from my pad has been hit a couple times in the past so I am actually leaning towards that being the spot where it happened…