The gas pump “screw method” scam is the scam
Real gas scams exist. This one was mostly fumes.
The latest gas-station scam warning has a screw loose, which is fitting because the whole thing appears to be fake.
The scam involves fraudsters sticking a screw in the nozzle cradle of the gas pump so that the level never fully returns to the off position when you’re done filling up. That supposedly prevents the machine’s mechanisms from knowing the transaction is done and allows the scammer to pull up to the pump and fill up on someone else’s dime.
And with the cost of gas topping $5 a gallon in many places, the “screw method” could hit you where it hurts.
There’s just one problem. It looks like the whole thing is fake.
The gas pump screw method is a hoax, according to myth-busting website Snopes, which said it has yet to confirm a single case.
There are real gas-station scams. Axios notes that “pump switching,” in which someone distracts a driver or offers to help and then keeps the transaction going, is a legitimate problem that can worsen as gas prices rise. But the screw-in-the-cradle version looks like classic internet panic: just plausible enough to spread, not real enough to survive checking.
Real gas scams exist. This one was mostly fumes.
But at least people can try it and risk going to jail.