Oakland Police Department has released images of a skimming scam suspect.
OAKLAND, Calif. – A regular customer at an Oakland 7-Eleven convenience store discovered a credit card skimmer Sunday as he attempted to make a purchase.
The store at 3500 Grand Ave. in the Grand Lake neighborhood is yet another target of scammers who aim to get personal information and steal credit or debit card numbers.
“I was going to enter my PIN and the buttons were the biggest giveaway,” said David Dinar who frequents the 7-Eleven store. “I stopped and removed my card because something instantly clicked that something’s not right here.”
Skimming devices are placed over stores’ card readers and fitted with a machine that records all the information read from a card’s magnetic strip or chip.
Dinar said the buttons on the skimmer he found looked and felt differently.
“They felt squishy and I looked really closely, and it didn’t look the same as the other one at the other register,” he said. “I kind of just picked at it and slow but sure enough…it came off.”
Dinar said he took pictures and alerted 7-Eleven employees who reported it to managers. He also contacted his bank and canceled his card to prevent fraud.
“The skimmer – it fit on like a phone case, so it’s snug and you kind of don’t really recognize it unless you pay attention,” he said.
Oakland Police Department has released images of a skimming scam suspect.
