McAllen police are warning the public of possible fraudulent charges to their debit and credit cards after card skimmers were discovered at four convenience store gas pumps in the city.
Over the last three days, McAllen police received several calls regarding debit/credit card skimmers, the McAllen police department said in a news release Wednesday.
Skimmers are devices that are affixed to a vendor’s card readers to secretly swipe and save debit/credit card information when customers slip their cards into the readers.
Police found those devices at four Stripes stores:
> Stripes located at 2900 W. Nolana Ave.
> Stripes located at 5700 S. 10th St.
> Stripes located at 4600 S. 23rd St.
> Stripes located at 621 E. Nolana Ave.
The department is reminding residents to be vigilant and monitor their debit/credit card statements. Any unusual activity on those statements should be reported to the bank or company that issued the card.
“The sooner the consumer detects the suspect activity, the sooner losses may be minimized and the greater the opportunity to identify those involved,” the department said. “We also encourage our business community to regularly inspect debit/credit card readers to guard against the installation of skimming devices.”
The investigation on the skimmers is ongoing.
