You don't have to look too far back to know that crooks have been hitting the Triangle with "skimmers" hard for months.
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- June 5: police found four skimmers hidden in gas pumps at a Circle K in Carborro.
- June 15: in Spring Lake, another gas station was hit. The tamper tape was found broken at the Kangaroo on Main Street.
- July 6: two skimmers were discovered at the Wilsonville General Store at Jordan Lake.
- July 14: a skimmer was found at the card reader inside a Sheetz on Highway 50.
- July 28: a skimmer turned up at the C-Mart Exxon in the 2400 block of East Club Boulevard.
Often, skimmers are hidden inside machines (gas pumps, card readers, ATMs, etc.) and can be nearly impossible to detect without close inspection.
Authorities warn that criminals are also going high tech by connecting skimmers buried in machines to Bluetooth devices and capturing real-time data from locations nearby.
Among the things you can do to protect yourself: