This alert follows a previous warning from November that also mentions such merchants being an increasingly attractive target for threat groups "due to the lack of secure acceptance technology, (e.g. EMV Chip, Point-to-Point Encryption, Tokenization, etc.) and non-compliance with PCI DSS", Bleeping Computer has recently reported.

According to VISA Payment Fraud Disruption (PFD) team, cybercrime groups units have apparently found a weak spot in how gas stations and gas pump operators function.

The in-store POS terminals of some gas merchants reportedly support chip-and-PIN transactions. However, most of the card readers installed at gas pumps do not.

VISA documented breaches at two fuel dispenser merchants in a November 2019 security alert, and another three breaches in a December 2019 alert. The two alerts highlight a new target and modus operandi for cybercrime groups, according to a report in ZDNet.