Service Station Scam Uncovered

July 2, 2001 -- 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."

The Nassau County investigation uncovered one scam that's nearly impossible to detect. Some stations filled their underground premium tanks with regular gasoline. But they still charged premium prices, ripping off customers by not giving them what they paid for.

High-Tech Scam

"Our area is not that different from the rest of the country, and if it's happening here it's probably happening in other places," said Roger Bogsted, director of Nassau County's consumer affairs office, who estimates that the frauds cost Americans millions of dollars.

Additionally, there are some high-tech scams out there. Some gas stations are buying a $7,000 computer chip that can be placed in a pump to cheat customers. The pumps then dispense less gas than is indicated.

What can motorists do to avoid being ripped off? Check your owner's manual to see how much octane your car needs. According to the American Automobile Association, 94 percent of the cars in this country don't need fuel with higher than an 87 octane. If you buy gas with a higher octane, you're not doing your car any favors because since 1995 all gasoline has had four additives to clean engines.

And make sure the price on the pump is the same as the price on the gas station's roadside sign.

And if you have issues with the quality of the gas or anything else, report the station to the proper authorities. In some states, that's the attorney general. In others it's the Department of Agriculture, or the Department of Weights and Measures.