New pay app helps to bypass tech thieves at gas pumps
A new mobile pay app is helping drivers gas up without directly using a credit card.
Some drivers are worried about card skimmers on the pumps that may have been attached illegally by thieves who then steal credit and misuse card numbers.
At Risdon’s 76 in Carpinteria the new mobile pay is now hooked up to allow customers using the special app a way to buy gas with a few taps on their phone.
“It is very simple, and very fast and efficient. You don’t have to put your card into the pump,” said owner Don Risdon.
“He says you put your information into the My 76 app and ” you call up the app, you choose a pump and it gives you a 4 digit code to put right into the pump it is a very secure way of payment,” said Risdon who was showing the pay system as he was talking about it. It came up just that fast.
Like many stations he has other pump security including special tape across the front that, if tampered with, the word ‘void’ appears.
They also check the mechanism inside often to see if any other device has been added, possibly by a criminal.
“We do a daily inspection of the security tape that we have and if any of the security tape has been broken we go inside and open up the dispenser daily and look. We make sure that none of those devises have been put on the pump,” said Risdon.
Customer Bill Hastings has been hit by tech thieves in the past, elsewhere. He likes the mobile pay when compared to using the credit card slot. “I always look here to see if it has been monkeyed with and these are pretty sophisticated people now.”
He likes the new pay option. “T his a nice feature. The crooks get one step ahead, the systems catch up (then) another step, (we) catch up”
As the mobile pay is rolled out, all gas purchased until the end of the year comes with a ten cent a gallon discount.
The offer is good at all stations with the new app system installed and Risdon says more than half of the 76 dealers have it in place now in Southern California. It was first used about a month ago.
The app also has a map feature to locate stations close to the driver that have the mobile pay.
