Fraudulent use of credit card -- why gas station?

Discover notified me yesterday that there was a possible fraudulent use of my credit card. Indeed the charge was unauthorized, so even though there’s some minor hassle involved in getting new cards and number, I am very glad they caught it.

The charge was for more than $500 and was made at a Speedway gas station in the far south suburbs. I live in the western suburbs and can’t remember the last time I was that far south in the area and not just driving through on the freeway. I can’t remember the last time, if ever, I bought anything at a Speedway station.

So somehow someone got my number. Why use it at a gas station? Presumably they didn’t need $500+ of gasoline – and if they did, whatever for? Otherwise what would they buy at a Speedway that could easily be turned into cash?

I know that there were scams where someone would have stolen credit card, and sell gas at a discount to other patrons.

Pull up, and there is someone offering to give you gas at half price, many will think there is something wrong with that offer, but some will take you up on it.

$500 at a single station seems a bit risky though.

Maybe they just got the gas station sushi special?

Gift cards. Easy to sell online for 70-80% of the face value. There’s sites that will do it automatically.

As for “why at the gas station?” it could range from “They know a guy there who won’t ask questions” to “The minimum wage teller won’t care” to “There’s no security guard to call over if things are suspicious”, etc.

I once used my card at a gas station and then tried to use it at a drug store, and they said it was denied. Bank then told me that using the card at a gas station and a drug store, one after the other, appears to be theft. I had to get a new card. How was I supposed to know? So, don’t ever do that…

Security analysis nowadays uses many parameters. Some make sense, some don’t. I am not privy to the latest stats anymore, but my guess is some data analysis detected a connection between “gas station followed by drug store” with fraud and decided that subsequent events of a similar nature should be treated suspiciously.

Next week, it may be a different criteria, and may be somewhat random overall. You might be innocently caught in the middle.

If this isn’t sufficient explanation, consider this.

A transaction at a gas station is fraudulent.

Less than 10 minutes later, a transaction with the same card at a drug store is fraudulent.

What is the software than monitors stuff going to think? Hmmm…two bad transactions within 10 minutes…is it the proximity, the product purchased, the color of the card, the amounts (compared), or the elapsed time element that we should flag as fraudulent for future security?

If the software makes the wrong decision (that never happens, right?) then you might be flagged as a badass criminal. Sorry about that, Chief.

Fill up your car, then fill the wife’s car. Later get a gallon of gas to run the lawnmower. Wait 4 or 5 business days for a new card cause they shut you off.

Then again, I had to call about several fraudulent purchases made in California, while live half way to the other coast. There were IIRC 5 purchases made in Cali.

Pretty obvious too, since there were several local purchases made at the same time.

When my credit card was stolen, they used it first at a gas station, then went to the electronics store and started the serious stuff. The detective told me they often try it at a gas station to see if it has been reported as stolen yet.

It hadn’t been - I didn’t know it was gone until I got the phone call from the police. The guy got busted because he had tried it before at the same electronics store, and the clerk (bless him) remembered that he had charged stuff under a different name than mine the last time.

I didn’t lose anything by it - the CC company even waived the $50 or $100 deductible or whatever it was. The thief got convicted, but pled guilty and got continuance of probation. The detective was really nice - he gave me a plastic Jr. Detective badge for my son. And he knew the thief from his previous misadventures. I was the only one, it seemed, who wasn’t thoroughly familiar with the whole process and everyone involved.

Regards,
Shodan

Or tobacco. I’ve seen a person (yes I did report them) selling discount packs of cigarettes on a semi-regular basis. What the game is I don’t know but there rarely seem to be a lack of takers.

According to people “in the know” cleaning supplies are also a fairly fungible item to purchase with stolen credit cards.

See, that never made sense to me. If it hasn’t been reported stolen yet, it will be now, especially when so many people get alerts on their phone every time their card is charged.
It always seemed to me that you’re better off using it for a big purchase right away. Go spend a couple hundred dollars at Best Buy or Target. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, you make up some excuse, curse out the cashier and tell them you’re going to call the credit card company and you’ll be right back.
And, no cashier is going to think anything of it. Cards get declined all the time (I can’t tell you the last time I get a message on the terminal that said anything other than ‘declined’ or ‘incorrect pin’) and cashiers get yelled at for it, like it’s their fault. The person says they’ll be right back and they probably actually come back far less than half the time. None of that would seem out of ordinary to a cashier.

I can think of one time when that backfired. A friend’s house was robbed, one of the things they grabbed was his credit card. The thief tried to use it to buy a Rolex and Amex blocked the purchase. The guy got spooked and took off running. Luckily the watch store found that odd, wrote down a description of his car and passed it to the police. Local police asked the neighboring precincts about it and one recognized the car and the located the person.

I can imagine there’s plenty of people out there who would rather have $500 worth of beer, cigs and gas right now, than a bunch of electronics or shit they have to sell.

Gas stations have long had a reputation for being not totally law abiding. When I was a 16, I took my car to a gas station that did state inspections. It was common knowledge that the owner would let kids “do their own inspections”. He told me to go pull a wheel and check my brakes. I’d go out, wait 5 minutes, then go in and say, “hey, Mike, brakes look great”. He basically sold inspection stickers.

When I was 17, I had a job at a self-serve gas station. One day a guy stopped, filled his tank, then asked me if I was interested in a used 8-track player. I sure was!! He opened his trunk and showed me 3. I bought one and was thrilled with the great deal I got. A friend later explained to me that I’d bought stolen merch. I was so naive that I didn’t realize.

It seems odd that the bank would need to send you a new card when you verify that you were the one making the purchases. Anytime I raise a flag and get a transaction denied, I get a call or a text asking if it was me; if I say yes, then the card is re-activated and I can complete my purchase. The only time I get new cards is if I say the transaction wasn’t me.

Recently, it has been working this way (receiving a text asking me to confirm the purchase, cart suspended meanwhile). But in the past, I got my card cancelled straight away. In fact, they did send me a mail and call me for confirmation, but the card was already cancelled anyway. Maybe things have changed?

Laundry detergent, particularly Tide, has been a favorite for (literal?) money laundering for a while. It’s expensive, fairly compact, sold just about everywhere, has no traceable serial numbers, and everyone needs to do laundry. Go to the grocery store and buy two or three big bottles or packs of pods and nobody’s going to blink, especially if it’s on sale that week. Buy it with a stolen card, sell the stuff, and it’s pretty easy money.

Seems logical to me that the detective is right. First, the thief tests the card at a gas station. If the card is declined, he can just drive away quietly, and nobody notices anything.
If instead, the thief goes to Best Buy for a big purchase, and the card fails, he has to make a scene, attract attention, and it’s all recorded on the security camera.

You don’t think there’s cameras at the gas station?

A lot of these a “cooperative ventures.” Employees at gas stations don’t make a lot and CC theft is common, so they can get a small kickback for ‘overlooking’ things.

Happens in drugs stores and retail shops too.

I thought that was just here in Arkansas. It seems to me that is a hell of a lot of Tide. How many boxes for a lid of marijuana?

What’s more annoying is the other way. I drive across country a lot, and sure as sunrise somewhere along the way my card gets declined. You’d think the gas purchases I made tuesday in Texas, the three in Oklahoma Wednesday, the three in Missouri and Illinois thursday and the two in Wis on Friday could be considered suspicious. Nope, they get approved easily, It’s the one in Wisconsin the next Monday that gets flagged as suspicious and gets denied.

You’d think that whatever patterns they are looking for, a string of gas purchases along a major freeway route would be a clue someone is going on a trip, and not stealing a card, but you’d be wrong.