A cybersecurity professional discovered a card skimming device on a gas pump at a 7-Eleven on Orange Avenue in Fort Pierce on Monday morning, prompting a police investigation in which officers checked every pump at the station. Arlo Bess, who has 25 years of cybersecurity experience, found the device after routinely pulling on the card reader before pumping gas. Neither the store manager nor the responding officers had ever seen a skimmer in person before.
Bess stopped at the station on the south side of Orange Avenue near Interstate 95 while heading back to Palm Bay. He said he has tugged on card readers at gas stations for years as a precaution, and this was the first time one came loose. Bess took the device inside and showed it to the manager, who called police. Officers arrived within minutes, took a report, and worked with Bess to check all the other pumps.
Bess explained that skimmers take only two to three seconds to install or remove and are often held on with double-sided tape. A small chip inside reads data from a card's magnetic stripe as it goes in. Thieves typically leave devices in place for about a week to collect card numbers, expiration dates, and security codes, then sell the information on the dark web or copy it onto other cards for use at self-checkout kiosks or online purchases.
Bess said consumers cannot reliably spot a skimmer just by looking and that the best check is a firm pull on the card reader without using tools. He recommends tapping cards or paying inside instead, and avoiding debit cards at the pump because fraud protections differ from credit cards and it can take weeks to recover stolen money from a checking account. For debit or ATM cards, he suggests using machines inside bank lobbies because outdoor machines are easier targets. The Fort Pierce Police Department confirmed it is investigating.