A new law that went into effect designed to protect consumers from credit card stealing skimmers at gas pumps may not be protecting you as much as you believe.
The law gives minimum mandatory security measures. One of those measures is placing security stickers on the openings of the pumps. The stickers are supposed to show consumers and the gas stations if someone may have tampered with the pump.
It didn't take ABC Action News long to find broken and tampered seals. At one Sunoco along Himes Avenue, all of the pumps had broken stickers. We brought the issue to the attention of the attendant who simply applied new stickers to all of the pumps without inspecting them.
"Now you're telling people that it's been fixed. That it hasn't been tampered with," our reporter said to the attendant.
"I will call Sunoco Company, they will come out and check this one," he said.
We asked one woman who was pumping gas at the station what she thought about the response from the Attendant.
"Well then that means it's just a sticker," she said.
According to state officials, not all pumps are mandated to have the stickers. Some pumps are equipped with anti-criminal technology.
Several Wawa's and RaceTrack's have the newer pumps. One manager said the pumps simply won't work if a criminal has gained access.
According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the new regulations wont stop all criminals and deputies are still urging people to use the same precautions they've preached in the past. They suggest using cash instead of cards, going to gas stations that are open 24 hours and using pumps closest to the entrance of the establishment because thieves tend to place skimmers at pumps that aren't easily seen by attendants.
