The Florida House of Representatives recently passed legislation that will crack down on skimmers in Florida. Commissioner of Agriculture Adam H. Putnam worked with Senator Anitere Flores and House Majority Leader Dana Young on Senate Bill 912 and House Bill 761, respectively, this legislative session.
A skimmer is a device that steals credit or debit card information when consumers swipe their cards at a pump to pay for gas and this legislation will better protect consumers from this type of identity theft. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has found more than 190 skimmers statewide since the beginning of 2015.
Each skimmer victimizes approximately 100 consumers a year, resulting in $1,000 stolen from each victim on average. Each skimmer represents an estimated $100,000 threat to consumers.
“Protecting consumers from identity theft at gas pumps requires an all-hands-on-deck approach. I thank Senator Flores, Leader Young, the Senate and the House of Representatives for their support of this key consumer protection legislation,” stated Commissioner of Agriculture Adam H. Putnam.
“Consumers shouldn’t have to worry about identity theft when filling their gas tanks and this legislation will help protect Floridians and visitors from skimmers,” stated Senator Anitere Flores.
“Today we scored a victory for consumers at the pump by passing Senate Bill 912 to crack down on the criminals who install skimmers to steal credit card information from honest Floridians. It was a pleasure to work with Commissioner Putnam and Senator Flores to pass this good legislation,” added House Majority Leader Dana Young.
The legislation will help protect consumers from identity theft at gas station pumps and hold the criminal responsible by:
Requiring self-service fuel dispensers to use certain security measures to prevent theft of consumer financial information
Increasing enforcement authority against those who possess or traffic fraudulent credit cards
Reclassifying the crime of unlawful conveyance of fuel, which increases the maximum sentence
Increasing the offense level of the crime, which affects sentencing guidelines.
In addition to routinely checking pumps for skimmers, the department has worked to protect consumers by partnering with the Florida Petroleum Council and the Florida Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association to educate the industry about ways they can help protect consumers from skimmers. The Council and Association have distributed a one-page informational sheet to their 10,000 members with helpful information, such as “what to know,” “how to help” and “who to call,” in order to engage gas station employees in this consumer protection initiative.
The department regularly inspects Florida’s nearly 8,000 gas stations and analyzes samples of petroleum products to ensure consumers are being offered quality products at a fair measure