Crooks are stealing bank credit card information at gas pumps

Brien Krebs, in KrebsonSecurity reports on July 20, 2010, credit thieves are now attaching bank card skimmers inside gas pumps. The small circuit boards, apparently include both memory that stores the bank card data and a Bluetooth wireless transmitter that later passes customer's bank card data to an accomplice. The thief can just innocently park within Bluetooth range of the infected pump and use a laptop or smartphone to download the stolen card info. For more details see: "Skimmers Siphoning Card Data at the Pump"

For the past several months, using a credit card or debit card to pump gas in the Southeastern U.S., especially along I-75 or I-95 in Florida and Georgia proved even more expensive for a number of travelers and local residents. Similar credit card skimmers have been found in gas pumps along I-25 near Denver, Colorado. Police have also reported skimmed credit card numbers in Arizona, California, Nevada and Washington, and pay-at-the pump gas can cost you a lot more than you expect.

So far, there's not much you can do until you "Discover" (pun intended) that your card has been used for unauthorized purchases. One Florida gang was using the stolen card numbers to buy expensive gift cards in several Miami Walmarts. If skimmers get your pin number and your debit card number, they can empty your account while you're still on vacation. Alachua County Deputy Sheriff, Lt. Stephen Maynard, suggested to The Gainesville Sun that consumers take their credit cards or debit cards inside to the cashier or consider paying with cash.

Debit cards are the greater risk. Herb Weisbaum writes in an MSNBC "ConsumerMan" report that police in Las Vegas and Washington state, "advise residents not to use their debit card at a gas pump because there’s no way to be sure it hasn’t been tampered with." Weisbaum's article continues:

• Debit cards do not offer the same fraud protection as credit cards. If a crook armed with a skimmer snags your credit card number and uses it to buy things, you can dispute the charges with the credit card company. You won’t owe a thing while they investigate.
• If the crook grabs your debit card number, he can go to a cash machine and pull money out of your checking account. It could take days for the bank to investigate and put that money back into your account. During that time checks could bounce or you might not be able to pay your bills. That’s why the only way I pay at the pump is with a credit card.
• Another safe way to pay is with a gas station charge card. If you must use a debit card, choose the "credit" option. Your debit card doesn't become a credit card; it just means you don't have to punch in a PIN code. That's why it's actually safer. If the thieves get your card number, they won't have your PIN so they can't use it at a cash machine. 

So travelers may not know that gas pump skimmers are in the area and debit card users are particularly at risk. OK, then what can average consumers do to protect themselves? Common sense safeguards include:

1. Go in the store to process transactions and sign all credit card receipts, slower but effective, and you get to stretch your legs a little on a trip.
2. Check all credit card and debit card statements as soon as they arrive for any unauthorized purchases.
3. Put a security code in place on all credit cards so only the owner can use them.
4. Notify your local law enforcement officials AND your bank as soon as suspect you may have been victimized by this type of scam.
5. Immediately cancel any compromised accounts. There are differing protections and time limits depending on the type of cards you use.  Bank debit cards normally carry fewer protections than credit cards, so don't delay!
6. Check credit reports for any negative information that might have occurred from the incident.

Deputy Maynard also told The Gainesville Sun that he plans to stop using his debit card for purchases and said, "Cash is king."

Comparing iPad and Kindle reading speeds

Jakob Nielsen, who normally writes and teaches about web page design, did a small group study of iPad and Kindle reading speeds. It might be an important indicator for anyone interested in the purchase of an e-reader or educators working in classrooms or libraries who have a professional interest in the reading performance. The article can be found online at:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ipad-kindle-reading.html

While reading text on iPad and Kindle tablets is faster than in the past, they're still slower than reading printed text. PC screens were much slower for reading long-form text. Like a good friend and former director of media services for a Florida school district usually says, I suspect we'd both like to see a larger, more comprehensive study, but at least it may have be a hint that we should be careful when we use desktop computers or laptops to measure reading speed during computerized instruction and testing.

As one who used to read Washington Post articles and other news on my old Palm Pilot, I still think I'll wait for a tablet-sized device with a useable plug-in keyboard (like my old Palm) and the Android operating system. The next two or three years may really be interesting as computer form factors continue to evolve.

In the meantime, Nielsen's article on iPad and Kindle useability may help if you're thinking about moving to an e-book reader.


UPDATE 1: Our own local feedback on tablet computing has been all over the map for the past several days. One of our friends who works with technology and computer networking received an iPad for her birthday last week and thinks it's a wonderful tool. Another friend who deals with research, is very analytical and like my own look at e-readers, is still evaluating their potential use. A third friend and former reporter/editor is seriously looking at the lower priced Kindle ($189) with the software upgrades and improved type, but not with the improved screen of the more expensive DX model (yet). Her goal for a Kindle is mostly for convenience and saving trips to the library or used book store. All are what I'd call "serious readers."

Whatever the future holds for tablets, I don't want to be limited by Amazon's e-book inventory, Apple's online store or any set of vendors. I want to replenish the contents of a tablet from an infinite variety of sources, any video, audio and text in any format that will download and play on a conventional computer. I do most of my current daily reading online and more listening to books on tape and podcasts when Katy and I are on trips, unless she has one of the several books from her "book bag" already in her lap while I'm driving and I'm listening to NPR via Sirius Radio or an MP3 podcast through a single ear-bud.

Maybe I just forgot if I ever heard it before, but I do not remember seeing earlier attempts to quantify the difference in reading speed between printed pages, e-readers/tablets and at the slow end, desktop computers. It's more likely academic research was being done but without any notice by the popular media. The reading speed issue caught my attention because I've always believed that someday, it would be more economical for schools to move beyond textbooks and laptops by purchasing e-readers or enhanced tablets.

The enhanced tablets that students could carry between home and school would contain individualized student lessons as well as expanded resources including text, audio and video materials. These tablets would allow student progress to be monitored, software and student work backed up - even new lessons automatically reloaded by school wireless networks drawing from additional online servers (easily and inexpensively updated from regional or state-level networks). Think of a Florida Online School expanded statewide or even regionally or nationally with broad university participation and public funding for course development. Students could advance at their own pace and on their own vocational path as they grew older. Teachers could actually serve as mentors and advisers more than lecturers.

I may never live to see universal access to educational technology for every student, IF that's what it would eventually be, but I can also safely predict that the future of education will probably NOT take the actual form that technologists or anyone else predicted even 15 years ago. Never the less, age has not dimmed the goal that one day educators can have the tools at their fingertips to evaluate a child's education by what he or she has actually learned - their "entire body of work" - and not by the length of time they remain in school or their performance on a few superficial tests.

Thanks to all who commented via email or in conversations for stimulating a few more ideas into the discussion topic this week. I really appreciate the exchange.

UPDATE 2: PCWorld.com has picked up the story and added some of the questions that might be answered by a more extensive comparison of e-readers, tablets, laptops and desktop PCs. The story has also been picked up by Lifehacker.com and the British e-zine, The Register.

UPDATE 3  The ars technica website reports as of July 19, 2010, "Kindle books are now outselling Amazon's hardcover books in the US." Lowering the price of the smaller Kindle to only $189 has tripled the Kindle's sales in the past month.