I think the gas station attendant just charged my gas.....

[SydSim]

to his credit card


I got gas at a full service (NJ) station and was paying cash. Before he typed in the amount on the pump, he pulled out a card from his pocket and swiped it where a credit card goes. After pumping, he took my cash.

I got to thinking - that's a good racket there! He uses his card for cash purposes and gets to keep all of the points/miles, etc. earned on his card for the purchase!

Of course, it took nothing from me personally, but it felt kinda sneaky

Anyone else experience this?

 

[JennSaint]

to his credit card


I got gas at a full service (NJ) station and was paying cash. Before he typed in the amount on the pump, he pulled out a card from his pocket and swiped it where a credit card goes. After pumping, he took my cash.

I got to thinking - that's a good racket there! He uses his card for cash purposes and gets to keep all of the points/miles, etc. earned on his card for the purchase!

Of course, it took nothing from me personally, but it felt kinda sneaky

Anyone else experience this?

Maybe it's not even his credit card???

 

[Cindy B]

to his credit card


I got gas at a full service (NJ) station and was paying cash. Before he typed in the amount on the pump, he pulled out a card from his pocket and swiped it where a credit card goes. After pumping, he took my cash.

I got to thinking - that's a good racket there! He uses his card for cash purposes and gets to keep all of the points/miles, etc. earned on his card for the purchase!

Of course, it took nothing from me personally, but it felt kinda sneaky

Anyone else experience this?

That is a bit sneaky. It may be a miles/points thing or it may even be a stolen credit card.

 

[Ephany]

Could it have been a card to activate the pump? We pump our own gas here, but I know if you pay cash you have to prepay in the store and then come back to get your change. If not, then you're right, he's racking up the points but that's a lot of money to charge every day if he's doing it for every customer.

 

[Ohiodislover]

Are you sure it wasn't his access card to the cash register? Sometimes employees have to swipe so they know which employee did which transaction.

Maybe?


If not--Wow, I hope it wasn't a stolen card.

 

[SydSim]

But I don't understand....what would he gain by using a stolen credit card to pay for my gas? I can see if it was his own, and he used the cash to pay the credit card bill, but used the points/miles. But if he stole someone's card, what would he gain by using it on someone else?

 

[Vixen]

Are you sure it wasn't his access card to the cash register? Sometimes employees have to swipe so they know which employee did which transaction.

Maybe?

If not--Wow, I hope it wasn't a stolen card.

it prob was that

 

[SydSim]

Could it have been a card to activate the pump? We pump our own gas here, but I know if you pay cash you have to prepay in the store and then come back to get your change. If not, then you're right, he's racking up the points but that's a lot of money to charge every day if he's doing it for every customer.

I don't think that everyone pays cash. Lots of people use their CC and the attendant swipes it at the pump, in the same place that he swiped his. I suppose he can charge thousands each day, as long as he uses the cash that he collect to pay it every month. That's a lot of points!

 

[WDWBarb]

But I don't understand....what would he gain by using a stolen credit card to pay for my gas? I can see if it was his own, and he used the cash to pay the credit card bill, but used the points/miles. But if he stole someone's card, what would he gain by using it on someone else?

He pockets your cash and uses a stolen card to pay for the transaction. Kind of like a very unethical cash advance?

 

[Cindy B]

But I don't understand....what would he gain by using a stolen credit card to pay for my gas? I can see if it was his own, and he used the cash to pay the credit card bill, but used the points/miles. But if he stole someone's card, what would he gain by using it on someone else?

If I was in the business of stolen credit cards (which IM NOT!)

I would guess that gas stations, convenience stores and smallish transactions would be easier to "hide" instead of large purchases.

Maybe he thought you were cute and gave you free gas!

 

[Mom2Nick]

But I don't understand....what would he gain by using a stolen credit card to pay for my gas? I can see if it was his own, and he used the cash to pay the credit card bill, but used the points/miles. But if he stole someone's card, what would he gain by using it on someone else?

The bill gets paid on the card and he pockets the cash.

 

[SydSim]

The bill gets paid on the card and he pockets the cash.

Oh, I see! Hmmm, that is something that I didn't think of. Also, I've never seen someone swipe an access card at the pump before they pumped the gas.

 

[justhat]

I would think it's an access card to get the pump to turn on. I'm from NJ, but live in DC now and we have to pump our own gas. If we pay with cash, we have to go inside and pay in advance, then the cashier has to enter a code to turn the pump on and it is preset to allow only the amount of gas paid for. So my guess would be that in your situation, the gas station attendent probably just has a card to swipe which gives him access to the pump, like typing in some sort of code or whatever.

 

[Mom2Nick]

Oh, I see! Hmmm, that is something that I didn't think of. Also, I've never seen someone swipe an access card at the pump before they pumped the gas.

I have never seen any pumps here in NJ like that either. Something funny was definitely going on.

 

[Ohiodislover]

I have never seen any pumps here in NJ like that either. Something funny was definitely going on.

Around here it is not at the pumps, it is on the register. The employee has to swipe in, in order to do a cash transaction at the register. That way they can track the times an employee was in a register, and for what.

 

[wrconrad]

If the card was a stolen card, I highly doubt it would be able to use it more then a couple of time over the course of an hour or two at the max.

Gas pumps have been the easiest place to validate a stolen credit card works. There is usually no attendant (NJ is the exception) so if it is flagged a s stolen the perp can just drive off. When a card is reported stolen, the first thing to check is gas purchases. This is why you have to enter your zip code at the pump now.

BTW: I'm not a professional credit card thief. I work at a large bank in network security and have worked with customer satisfaction and fraud.

Most likely, the attendant is paying at the pump using his credit card and using the cash to pay off his credit card. If he is using the Disney rewards card then we might see him in Disney World soon as he can rack up some major Disney Dollars in a hurry. I would think that the gas station would not consider this acceptable and if the credit card company were notified, would revoke the points.

If he pumps 5 $40 fill ups an hour, over the course of a year, he would charge a total of $416,000. $4,160 in Disney Dollars would be nice little vacation each year.

 

[luvmy3]

Maybe he was pulling a Reality Bites. He was charging your gas on his card, pocketing the cash and Mom and Dad were getting the bill

 

[iggbees]

i've seen this before and i ALWAYS use a credit card. i lived in nj for a long time and i've seen attendants use their access card to turn on the pump and then swipe my credit card (they usually leave the card in the machine until they are done pumping and give me my card and receipt back). i think it probably has to do with the fact that citizens are not supposed to pump their own gas in nj so they probably have an extra access feature to deter people from doing so.

 

[Hillbeans]

At my local gas station in NJ (Hess) they swipe a "white" looking card before every transaction - before paying cash or with my own CC.

I think it's a way to stop people from pumping their own gas, and this white card activates the pump for the attendant only.

 

[java]

Well I am in NJ and I know they need to do it at one gas station- I think it was the Valero? ones? So I have seen it before. I would just call the station and ask if they need a card to activate pumps. Think of it as those pumps that if you were pumping yourself- and paying cash --you had to go in to the cash register first- I think that's what is going on. Don't sweat it.