TYLER, Texas — No one likes being scammed when using your credit card. If it’s happened to you, you know it’s not an easy process to get your money back. A situation that happened to Kayla Noble.
"I never imagined something like this would happen," Noble said.
She said she was in a rush to pump gas when it happened.
"I noticed that on the pump, there was this light that was blinking, and I didn’t think nothing of it," Noble said.
This speculation cost her $400 out of her bank account.
"Next thing you know I’m getting all these notification from my bank that purchases were made from Amazon, and I was like no, that wasn’t me," Noble said.
The Financial Crimes Intelligence Center was created in January of last year to prevent situations like these. It’s housed in Tyler but helps the entire state.
"They’ve already prevented 48 million dollars in fraud," said Smith County District Attorney, Jacob Putman.
According to the annual report, the agency has recovered nearly 400 skimmers across the state and have recovered almost 2,000 credit cards in 2022.
The success of multiple investigations in Smith County led to the creation of this agency.
"People across the state said we want to figure out what y’all are doing and emulate it and see what we can do," Putman said.
While this intelligence center doing their part to protect your information, Noble is also offering you an extra layer of protection.
"You should either pay cash or actually go inside the store and make the purchase that way you know it’s done right," Noble said.
Done right and secure to save you a headache later on.
The FCIC said it’s already received input from other states across the nation on how to immolate a program like the one here in Smith County to prevent credit card skimmers.