MIRAMAR, FLA. (WSVN) - Florida Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried and other state and local leaders visited Miramar to talk about their plans to protect consumers from fuel fraud and gas skimming scams.
“Over the last two weeks alone, we’ve found 150 skimmers in pumps across the state,” said Fried at the meeting Thursday.
Officials said skimmers are constantly popping up, especially in Broward County.
“Unfortunately, this is ground zero for where fraud, particularly fraud on skimmers is happening,” said U.S. State Senator Oscar Braynon.
“There’s a problem growing across our state, especially here in South Florida,” added Fried.
The meeting in Miramar was meant to bring awareness to the issue and also talk about the plans to tackle it.
“So we’re gonna be taking additional action and putting together our own task force so we can take action on these gas station pumps, which is costing Floridians billions of dollars,” said Fried.
Inspectors are constantly checking pumps for anything unusual.
Customers are advised to check the security seal on the pump station to see if it says void.
Another thing to look out for are the lights above the card reader, which should be green.
Fried feels there still needs to be even more protections for consumers and said she will continue trying to get legislation passed to create a multi-agency task force that will handle skimming issues.
“She’s not looking at this from a Democratic or Republican issue,” said U.S. Rep. Shevrin Jones, D-Fla. “She’s partnering with local municipalities. She’s partnering with the Senate, the highest-ranking member within the Senate. She’s partnering with the community to make sure we protect the consumers at all costs.”
Fried said so far, more than 600 skimmers have been found in pumps across the state in 2019.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.