DENVER (KDVR) — The Aurora Police Department’s Economic Crimes Unit is warning the public about a scam involving contactless payment at gas stations.

Aurora Police said scammers are drilling holes into the sensor where customers tap their debit and credit cards to pay. Damaging the tap-to-pay option forces customers to swipe their card for payment.

“Every time the good people come up with something to help people, the bad guys come up with something to defeat it, and this one’s really easy,” Aurora Police Sgt. Dan Courtenay said.

The thieves are stealing card information with skimming devices placed where customers swipe cards.

“That’s the name of the game right now: identity theft,” Courtenay said. “That’s what everyone is after.”

He said thieves are now able to plant skimmers within seconds. 

“Usually, they don’t just plant one. They’ll plant at least two,” Courtenay said. “I’ve seen up to at least four.”

Most of the time, he said people won’t even know it’s there. 

“Now they have Bluetooth, where they can just sit in the parking lot of the gas station and it feeds right onto their laptop,” Courtenay said. “All your information from your credit cards, it feeds right there.”

Aurora Police reminds people to check for a hole drilled in the contactless payment sensor and notify gas station employees if they notice one.