MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa- After more than $10,000 was stolen from over 40 Marshalltown residents because of a credit card skimmer, police are sharing the few ways you can protect yourself from this type of fraud.

On December 23, 2024, the Marshalltown Police Department started a credit card fraud investigation after around a dozen residents reported fraud. A credit card skimming device was recovered from a gas pump located at the Casey’s on West Lincoln Way.

“A skimmer is an electronic device that people use to record credit card information, bank card information, and then oftentimes, criminals take that card information and transfer that to another vehicle and use that to link into someone’s credit or banking account,” said Captain Christopher Jones with the Marshalltown Police Department.

The photo above shows the skimmer Marshalltown Police recovered.

The device was hidden well inside of the pump. Law enforcement personnel and Casey’s technicians had to search this particular gasoline pump multiple times before they recovered it.

This is the third skimmer in Central Iowa since last September. The other two were located at gas pumps in Newton.

Police say there are very few ways to protect yourself against this kind of fraud. While you can do things like contactless pay, such as Apple Pay, or cover your personal identification number (PIN) when swiping your debit card, there is no guaranteed way to avoid this fraud.

“The technology changes just as fast as we can catch up with it,” said Jones.

That’s because there are several different kinds of skimmers that can be used to record this sensitive information. These devises could be outside or inside places like gas pumps or automated teller machines (ATM). Examples include cameras, keypad overlays, or devices hidden inside the machines, like the one found in Marshalltown.

Jones says the only thing customers can really do is pay attention to their bank accounts.

“If you ever see anything that’s suspicious or you don’t know where that charge came from, doing some investigation with other family members that may have access to that account would be the first step. But then, calling your credit card or your banking institution to make sure that maybe you stop the payment on that until you can look into it further just to make sure that the sale is a legitimate sale,” he said.

If you suspect you’re a victim of this kind of fraud, you should notify your credit card company or banking institution and call your local authorities.

One Marshall County resident told WHO 13 News that she has shopped at this Casey’s location in Marshalltown before, but she will likely avoid it for now because of this detection.

“It’s sad that people go to that limit to do things like that to people. Most people don’t have a lot of money now,” said Faye Niedermann of Gilman.