Nikki Fried is taking aim at gas station skimmers, throwing her support behind a bill that seeks to put new safeguards in place to protect consumers in the state.
Fried, the commissioner for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said that skimmers at gas station pumps are doubling every year. Now is the time to do something about that to help protect drivers, she said, with most likely unaware that they’ve been a victim of being skimmed until well after the fact.
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“[A total of] $84 million was lost to fraud in 2018 and gas skimmers are part of the big problem,” she said. “… For every skimmer that is found, there is a $1 million hit on our consumers.”
Fried said that 251 skimmers have been found this year alone, with 110 of those in the South Florida area.
Senate Bill 430, legislation dubbed Petroleum Fuel Measuring Devices, is making its way through the Florida Legislature. The bill’s next stop is Wednesday on the Special Order Calendar.
Among some of the safeguards in the bill are pressure-sensitive security tape that will prevent unauthorized opening of the panel. As of Jan. 1, 2022, that tape would no longer suffice as the only barrier for protection.
The bill would make it a requirement to add an additional safety measure beyond the tape, such as encryption device for customer payments, a locking physical mechanism to prevent the reader from being opened or a system that makes the pump inoperable if it is opened by an unauthorized individual.
“It takes pumps with skimmers out of service until its actually been reinspected to make sure there are no skimmers and no issues with the pump,” Fried said.