On August 1, the sheriff's office received a call from a representative of the Fresno Educational Employee Credit Union fraud division. The credit union representative reported three EECU customers had fraudulent purchases made on their bank accounts this past week. The purchases occurred in Southern California, and all three customers had visited the Valero gas station in Kettleman City before discovering the charges.

Deputies visited the Valero station and inspected the gas pumps for credit card skimming devices. During the inspection, a deputy found two credit card skimming devices inside two different gas pumps.

Law enforcement believes the skimming devices were placed inside the gas pumps sometime last week, and the people responsible for installing the skimming devices are currently unknown.

 Credit card skimming devices have become a nationwide epidemic, affecting thousands of people, and resulting in millions of dollars lost. These devices are often found inside gas pumps at gas stations throughout the United States.

Credit card skimming devices capture bank information from unsuspected customers who insert their credit card at the gas pumps to purchase fuel. The people involved in the skimming device then use this bank information to make fraudulent charges, or they sell the bank information to others who make cloned credit cards.

To prevent this from occurring, the Kings County Sheriff's Office recommends purchasing gas inside the gas station rather than paying at the gas pumps.

The Kings County Sheriff's Office is asking anyone who visited the Valero gas station in Kettleman City and now has fraudulent charges appearing on their statement, to contact them at (559) 852-2720.