Service Station Scam Uncovered

July 2 -- As you get ready to hit the road for the Fourth of July holiday, you may be shocked to learn that some gas station owners may try to squeeze a few extra cents out of you.

But some stations are doing just that — to the tune of millions of dollars in illegal profits.

Whether you're pumping your own gas or you've pulled into the full-serve island, the last thing on your mind is likely to be that you're about to be ripped off.

Greg Steproe, an investigator for Nassau County on New York's Long Island, videotaped transactions at one station where several self-serve customers were cheated by station attendants. The attendants hit the higher-priced credit button despite the fact the motorists were paying with cash, which should have qualified them for a 7-cent-a-gallon discount.

‘Don’t Go to Those Pumps’

"They did it almost every time," Steproe said, "and nobody caught them."

Lillian Verity is one of the motorists who found out she had been taken.

"I feel angry," Verity said. "I feel like that's terrible. They shouldn't be able to do that."

Glenn Cohen is one of the customers whose wallet was hit the hardest. He's a cab driver who fills his car's tank every day. He said he bought gas dozens of times before he realized he'd been scammed.

"After a while you realize, don't go to those pumps because you knew you were getting scammed," Cohen said. "Every time a new driver would come in, he'd go over there and you knew he got scammed."

Investigators videotaped other stations running another simple scam. When customers ordered regular, the attendant would quickly punch the higher-octane pump, without the motorists realizing they were buying more expensive gas.

For consumers, the cost is a couple a dollars each fill-up. But for stations that pump thousands of gallons of gas each month, scams mean thousand of dollars in extra illegal profits.

Alert customer John Benvengo caught an attendant red-handed.

"I felt kind of violated," Benvengo said. "I said to myself, if it happens to me … and I was alert to what happens to senior citizens who drive in."