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Thieves can rip you off using bluetooth-enabled skimmers

<p>A gas pump skimmer was discovered at a Mobil Gas Station in North Port in October of 2016.</p>

TAMPA -- You know about credit card skimmers. We’ve reported on them several times, but thieves are getting even more crafty when it comes to ripping you off.

Gas stations can install better locks, or technology that shuts a pump down when someone messes with it. Thieves, however, are already one step ahead.

Hackers place devices on machines to steal your credit card information. They can also break in and install hard drives to steal info by Wi-Fi and now, bluetooth-enabled skimmers are popping up. That means thieves could steal your cash from blocks away.

"Soon as it passes that barrier between the card reader into the gas pump, the person is able to retrieve it either from their computer or from a nearby station," said Hillsborough Sheriff's Detective Tim White told us last year.

One piece of advice – always choose 'credit' as an option, so you're only giving out your zip code, not your pin. But, perhaps your only foolproof method – go inside and pay cash.

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