Has this happened to you?

[Beer Shaker]

I fill up @ CNG stations all over southern California, but almost every time I go to Burbank CE station, I get approached by a cabbie who wants to pay me cash to fill their tank with my credit card, saying " I left my card at home", or "I lost my card", etc. The last time a cabbie asked, I was kind of fed up with it and refused. As I'm driving away, the guy pulls out a credit card and starts to fuel up! Any idea what's going on here? Why do they want to avoid using a credit card?

[daugman]

Re: Has this happened to you?

dunno; unless they've rigged the card scanner to steal your info, or are using counterfeit.. sounds legit.

I get 100% of cabdrivers asking me how i got a CNG vehicle as a plain old civilian. All are either Somali or Indian, and very, very nice.

[CNGCARS]

Re: Has this happened to you?

Yes be very careful and I recommend you refuse to do so in the future again.
The two scenarios that come to mind is
1) they are trying to scan & copy your credit card info or possibly just don't want to use credit cards for A) tax reasons
2)they have reached their credit limit or are close to maxing out the card.

One scam pulled off about 10 years ago with high gas prices was a vehicle gutted out and a custom gas tank installed inside the complete vehicle. Just one seat to drive the car. They would use a stolen credit card and stop and fill the car with gas at many gas stations. Finally a sharp attendant noticed the vehicle parked and being fueled for a long time and called authorities.

Most recently over 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel was stolen from a arco station a night while it was closed. They drove a big rig onto the property and pretended to be delivering fuel but in fact they were stealing it.

Next time get a plate number and cabbie company name if you can. Meanwhile I will reach out to my contact at BPD and see if they are investigating any scams at the CNG stations.

In the Glendale & Burbank area 99 % of cabbies are middle eastern.

[CaptJeff]

Re: Has this happened to you?

Maybe, Just maybe, they are carrying a balance on their cards and are hung paying interest through the month.
I know most of us pay off our cards 100% and pay no interest, so that may be it.