CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. – Coral Springs police are warning people about credit card skimmers that have been found numerous times in recent months throughout the city.
In just the last month, there have been more than 30 credit card skimmers found in gas pumps in Broward County, authorities said.
More than 20 percent of them were in Coral Springs.
"Right now, we've been seeing an abundance of gas pump skimmers which are internally wired into the central processing unit of the gas pumps," Detective Jason Deluca said.
The Coral Springs Police Department has found a half-dozen credit card skimmers so far this month.
"As your card goes through the card reader, it will actually extract the information, store it and it's possible that it transmits it to a nearby device that the suspect has set up," Deluca said.
Police advise people to keep an eye out for stickers at the pump that might be broken or removed if a pump has been tampered with.
Police said technology from the skimmers now allow crooks to retrieve victims’ personal information through Bluetooth, and often times the suspect never touches the device again.
Then it's just a few simple steps and suddenly, a victim's card data is on a fake card.
"After he has the card information on a card with the magnetic strip, he then uses a device to emboss the card and make it appear to be genuine," Deluca said.
A quick Google search shows that the skimmers cost only a few dollars to make and catching the crooks without good surveillance cameras is nearly impossible.
In addition to the rise in credit card skimmers, Coral Springs police have also seen a new crime wave of stolen vehicles due to residents leaving key fobs inside their cars.
Authorities said they've seen about a dozen car thefts in just the last month.