Chargebacks911 Founder Monica Eaton recently offered a warning to merchants in a new feature in the St. Pete Catalyst.
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Skimming fraud involves criminals installing illegal devices on ATMs, point-of-sale terminals, or gas pumps to steal credit card data. The FBI estimates skimming costs businesses and customers $1 billion annually. And, according to the article, credit and debit card skimming fraud “is back with a vengeance.”
Incidents increased by 700% in the first half of 2022. However, the St. Petersburg Police Department didn’t receive a single skimming device complaint last year.
Always a proponent of erring on the side of caution, Monica remains skeptical. She advises businesses of all sizes to implement fraud prevention tactics to stop scammers and avoid unnecessary chargeback fees. “For two years, we didn’t have that traffic coming through stores,” she says. “So, we saw that type of fraud decrease substantially because there just wasn’t an opportunity for it.”
Even though the city lacked a single case of skimmer-related fraud in 2022, this shouldn’t make us complacent in 2023. Fraud prevention is more important now than ever before.
