According to a detective at the West Hollywood Sherrif’s department, a group of individuals had apparently installed a device inside a gas station pump in the area. This device had access to all information entered through the payment point. This includes full details of information stored on the magnetic strip on the back of cards (why, oh why, aren’t smartcards as common here as they are in Europe), as well as anything entered via the keypad, such as a PIN number or a zip code. The device included a wireless transmitter that broadcast 300-400 feet, allowing someone seated in a car located nearby to capture all the information generated at the pump. At the end of a hard day’s work, the thief would use this information to print the data onto card “blanks.” Given that my information was for an ATM card, they used it to visit bank machines far from my area of town.