With fuel prices at a 14-year high, it’s hard to imagine paying even more at the pump. Yet, prices are only getting higher. As of Monday, the average price for a gallon of gas in California hit $5.28 and diesel skyrocketed to $5.76 per gallon, according to the US Energy Information Administration. With this most recent increase, people are paying 70-80 cents more than just a month ago.

As fuel prices rise, fraudulent activity typically rises too. Increases in employee theft are common during periods of severe inflation, as we are seeing now. That means it’s more important than ever to keep an eye on your transactions to prevent this from happening to you.

If you would like to review your current program, we can look at your card’s restrictions and limits to ensure they are current and set up the way you would like them. If you aren’t already, this is also a good time to start regularly checking your transaction reports to monitor all fuel usage and to help prevent any unusual activity.

As a reminder, our CFN fuel card program, helps protect against fraud in a number of ways such as:

  • Network-wide protection against fraudulent transactions
  • Fraud protection notifications when unusual or suspicious activity is detected
  • Protection from card skimming and software attacks

In addition to these benefits, here are some other tips to prevent CFN loss and theft:

  • Make sure that your card restrictions and limits are appropriate for your business needs. This ensures that there are not gallons available to be taken without drawing attention.
  • Set up e-receipts to get transaction details sent to you when fueling occurs.
  • Do not write or leave pin number on your cards. This is easily the most common way fraud occurs with fuel cards.
  • Keep track of critical information. Make it a point to know the potential use amounts of fuel for your vehicles, the patterns and habits of drivers and the typical charge amounts on your card. This can easily be done by running transaction reports via our customer portal.
  • Stay informed and aware. Make sure you are always up-to-date on the most commonly used fraudulent practices including wanding, skimming and shimming.
  • Put preventative measures in place. One easy thing to do is to purchase RFID blocking wallets or sleeves to prevent wanding. This sleeve comes with our card and we recommend having your drivers use it!
  • Notify us immediately if you lose a card or pin, or notice any questionable transactions.

If you have any questions or would like help reviewing your account, please contact Aryana Trams at aryana@gregspetro.com.