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Crime

Six Arrested After Manipulating Gas Station Pumps To Steal 30,000 Gallons of Gas (msn.com) 72

Posted by EditorDavid from the running-on-fumes dept.
A Valero gas station sells approximately 5,000 gallons of gas a day, one employee estimates.

But local police arrested six men who, in a series of robberies, tricked the pumps out of 30,000 gallons of gasoline, reports the Mercury News, "a haul authorities estimated was worth at least $180,000." Upon further inspection of surveillance video, authorities said, police saw one of the suspects activate a gas-pump computer, allowing another suspect to pump fuel into his vehicle.... An employee from the Valero station, who declined to give their name, called the process the gas thieves used "nearly untraceable."

"You must have a deep understanding of how the pump system works," the person said. "There is a time frame anywhere from 75 seconds to two minutes for the authorization to go through the network [after sliding a credit card into a gas pump]. In this (time period), there's an opportunity to manipulate the pump ... You're able to manipulate the pump and confuse the programming to an extent that the pump starts dispensing gas...."

In a Facebook post, authorities said the three suspects had been "conspiring together in a sophisticated operation to thwart security devices and pump electronics to steal large amounts of gasoline from the business...."

Authorities say $20,000 of damage was done to gas pumps.
Thanks to Slashdot reader k6mfw for submitting the story.
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Six Arrested After Manipulating Gas Station Pumps To Steal 30,000 Gallons of Gas More

Six Arrested After Manipulating Gas Station Pumps To Steal 30,000 Gallons of Gas

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  • Something missing? (Score:5, Informative)

    by ukoda ( 537183 ) on Saturday December 24, 2022 @01:45PM (#63155288) Homepage
    There is clearly some important details missing from this story. As it stands it doesn't pass the smell test. I'm guessing their may be a hole in the design of the system that is being exploited but the story is so lacking in details it is near worthless to read.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 )
      Yeah, I had to google it... Sounds like there are two methods. One involves opening up the pump and installing a mod on the flow meter. The other involves some sort of remote control device combined with lazy owners who didn't change the default password.

    • The missing link (Score:5, Informative)

      by dogsbreath ( 730413 ) on Saturday December 24, 2022 @02:19PM (#63155364)

      AFAIK all modern filling station pumps are programmed by remote controls which are readily purchased online. The pumps have little or no security, ie: default pins and passwords which station owners fail to change or which are easily obtained from employees.

      It doesn't help that there are only a few pump vendors and there are third party universal remotes.

      So, you go up to the pump and do all the normal pay at the pump stuff while your buddy knocks the price per litre down to nothing.

      Universal pump remote [levtech.ro]

      Same thing in Colorado [newsnationnow.com] back in March.

      Similar thefts have been happening around NA and Europe. I am sure it happens anywhere there are pumps with remote programmers.

      Police and station owners are often make statements about inside computer knowledge is needed and it is complicated. I think this is just to discourage copy cats because the systems have to be simple enough that the midnight minimum wage gas mart clerk can program a price change in a few minutes with little or no training.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Apparently nobody told them you can make your own fuel for free at home, if you buy an electric car. Completely legal too!

        Okay, okay, you have to buy the panels.

    • There is clearly some important details missing from this story. As it stands it doesn't pass the smell test. I'm guessing their may be a hole in the design of the system that is being exploited but the story is so lacking in details it is near worthless to read.

      Obviously details are missing and for good reason. Until the vulnerability is patched (which might not be so easy) then others could exploit pumps using the same technique. So, it's not surprising the article doesn't go into the specifics.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ukoda ( 537183 )
        Sure, I'm not asking for a step by step guide but at least some detail to understand what we are dealing with. Are the perpetrators some mega-geniuses who discovered a zero exploit? Is the real fault the gas station operator leaving the gates to the castle open and unguarded? Maybe the designers of the pump system are idiots who didn't do the basics of design?

        As it stands the whole story could be rewritten "Some bad people did some bad stuff because they were bad people".

      • Obviously details are missing and for good reason. Until the vulnerability is patched (which might not be so easy) then others could exploit pumps using the same technique. So, it's not surprising the article doesn't go into the specifics.

        You would think but actually this has been a growing problem for a few years now. Articles with details are easily found and I believe /. had another story about this in the not so distant past. Used to be a rarity but much more common now.

        I don't know what could be done without including at least some sort of two factor authentication for changes so that all access is tied to specific people and not just a password or pin. Likely that would mean either licensing a security dongle or fob product for e

        • In the old days you had a hard-wired connection back to a console inside. While calling it "secure" might be ignorant, it was at least protected by a traceable level of security.

          The only real vulerability then was at the explosion-proof fittings where the wires entered the building, but leveraging that might be a bit tricky.

          • Yeah, I hear you. As soon as it went wireless (rf or infrared) and use a handheld that is sold to anyone who wants one, security got flushed down the commode.

      • There's a deliberate back door in a lot of pumps for maintenance access. I assume you could figure out the details of the wireless signal and comm protocol, or you could just steal a gas pump tech's device.

        Or hell, maybe you could just order one direct from China. That's probably where they're made these days.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by mspohr ( 589790 )

      I think the "$20,000 in damage to the pumps" might be a significant detail that needs explanation.
      I doubt they damaged the pumps just for kicks and grins.

  • Did the suspects roll up in a gas tanker? Need details.

    • Re:30000 gallons? (Score:5, Funny)

      by jwhyche ( 6192 ) on Saturday December 24, 2022 @03:11PM (#63155470) Homepage

      Back in my old home town during the '70s during the oil embargo, a couple of "geniuses" got the idea to steal some gas. The cut hole in the floor of a panel van and lined the cargo hold with tanks. The parked the van over tank caps of the station and pretended the truck broke down.

      While one of them was under the hood acting like he was thing to fix it, the other one would take the caps off and lower a hose through the hole they cut in the van. You would think that someone would notice the hose in to the tanks but they did a pretty good job of hiding that.

      What they didn't take into account was the weight of gasoline. The station owner got suspicious as he watched the van get lower to the ground as they pumped. Nor did they think of gas fumes because when the police got there the truck was so full of fumes that if they had tried to start it, odds are they wouldn't' have made it out of the parking lot.

  • I know how this trick works. There is a few second delay after putting your card in. If you get the timing just right, you will have a chance to enter a pin number. If you manage to successfully enter the pin number, you sometimes then are prompted for a ZIP Code. I always just put in my billing ZIP Code during this time.

    After that the pump dispenses gas. Ive been using this method for years.

  • Something does not add up (Score:3)

    by Retired Chemist ( 5039029 ) on Saturday December 24, 2022 @02:18PM (#63155356)
    How is 30,000 gallons of gas worth 180,000 dollars (six dollars a gallon). Gas prices are high, but not that high, especially considering that the retail price includes taxes and profit (if any). I assume they are accused of manipulating the pump to dispense more than they were paid for. It would take a lot of visits to make off with 30,000 gallons doing this.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      lawyer math

      in the real world, you can't even get wholesale for fenced shit

      in lawyer land, every time you listen to happy birthday on youtube without ads an executive - sorry, an artist starves

    • How is 30,000 gallons of gas worth 180,000 dollars (six dollars a gallon).

      It is bullshit. Fuel in Sunnyvale is well under $5/gal (in some cases, under $4.)

      • It is now, but that wasn't the price all year long. The story doesnt say when the gas was stolen or whether it was premium.

        In the summer, prices for premium were well over $6. I paid $6.99 on a road trip in June for premium in CA for my 2015 Volt.
        Fortunately I only fillup a few times a year, mainly during road trips. This is why I remember the price. It was probably the worst possible time to buy gas. But nevertheless, gas got close to $7.

    • They were close to $6/gal in the bay for a bit, but the article stated something to the effect of "losses would be even higher above $5/gal" so the math doesn't work out. I bet the guy actually had a twamp of crank that magically became nearly six ounces. Gotta inflate them figures...

    • I paid $6.99/gallon in June for premium on a road trip in CA. I drive a Volt, though, and usually go about 6 months between fill-ups outside of road trips.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ebvwfbw ( 864834 )

      A lot of things don't add up. Gasoline is 6 Lbs a gallon and a tanker hauls 10,000 gallons. That brings the GVW to around 80,000 lbs which is the limit. So they're saying they stole 3 tankers worth of gas? They'd have to be really busy beavers to make off with that much gas. Then there is storing it. Did tractor supply sell a whole bunch of water tanks or something? Then of course it's not exactly safe.

      IMHO, they're off by a digit or two. Maybe they made off with 300 or perhaps even 3000 gallons. That would

  • or just pick the lock and force it to spit out

    • This is why the pumps are in plain view of the operator. I think they would notice an open panel on one of the pumps.
  • Let's see, it served out gas to a lot of people for how long--in a broken state?

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