Be careful of scammers during the holiday travel season

WINONA, Miss. (WCBI) – Tomorrow kicks off the holiday travel season, and scammers are gearing up to take advantage of unsuspecting motorists.

But there are some steps you can take to protect your financial information.

When you hit the road, the last thing you want to think about is someone stealing your personal information.

But if you’re not careful it could happen when you stop at the gas pump.

It’s time to pack your bags, load up the car, and head out to visit loved ones.

Somewhere on the road, you’ll probably have to stop for gas.

Before you swipe your card, there are some things you need to look out for.

“If you’re going to a gas station the first thing I would recommend is using a pump that’s closer to the store you know that maybe the cashier can keep an eye on to keep people from putting made it her them from putting them on there. I always tell people and if I use one what I will do is actually grab it and wiggle it because a lot of times it might be loose or you may notice a difference a change in color between the actual skimmer and the surrounding part of it,” said Chief Investigator Dan Herod.

And it’s not just the card reader you have to worry about.

Scammers are replacing pin pads too.

But now your phone may be able to help you spot the skimmers.

“There’s also an app you can download on your phone. I think it’s called Card Skimmer Locator and what that does is it operates off of your Bluetooth on your phone. Some of the cards scammers will run off of Bluetooth low-energy, and it will detect a certain code in there that your phone also uses for Bluetooth low-energy. It’ll pop up that it recognizes something in the area of a possible skimmer,” said Herod.

Mark Austin says card skimmers are always on his mind when filling up his truck.

“Absolutely I try to pay with cash anytime I go get gas anywhere. Heard of it happening to several individuals around here. I just sent my son in there to pay cash,” said Mark Austin.

So far, Winona hasn’t experienced problems with card skimmers, and they hope to keep it that way.

“I do know the owners of the gas stations here they keep a pretty good check on them because I know I think there was some located about 15 miles south from here, but the people around here are pretty good about keeping an eye on the gas pumps,” said Herod.

Some gas stations are putting a special tape on the control panel and card reader. If the tape has been tampered with it shows a special design to warn people.