LENOIR CITY, Tenn. — Lenoir City Police are seeing a rise in credit card skimmers, taking people's personal information and their cash.
The police department posted on Facebook asking people to protect their information and be on the lookout. Lenoir City Police Chief Don White said they have seen nine cases of theft in the past 10 days.
"What we've seen most recently is our gas stations are getting targeted," White said. "The criminal organizations have figured out new ways to gather your information at the gas pump. So we have had an increase as far as victims."
White said this issue is not new. He also said it's not a Lenoir City or a Tennessee problem, but they're tracking the activity in the area.
"We have a local business, a gas station, that's lost $88,000 this year and fraudulent purchases of diesel fuel," he said. "We have another local business that lost $5,400."
White said it's tricky to track this criminal activity because they are breaking into gas pumps, rather than changing the card readers. He said their department hadn't seen information being skimmed from external card readers in Lenoir City in over a year.
"We've had nine cases," White said. "We've got 15 suspects and probably over 30 vehicles that we've identified that had been in Lenoir City. We have discovered those vehicles as far west as Nashville and as far north as Bristol and as far south as Atlanta."
White said there are ways to prevent this theft from happening to you.
- Use your credit card.
- Check for suspicious card readers.
- Use ATMs and gas pumps in well-lit areas near a cashier.
- Go inside to pay for your gas.
- Check your bank account frequently for suspicious purchases.
- If you do suspect you are a victim, report it to local law enforcement so they may continue to track the crime in your area.