The self-service industry continues to grow as customers become savvier with technology and desire fast transactions. One particular area of self-service that is growing rapidly is the use of self-service fuel pumps at gas stations. These fuel pumps may be equipped to dispense fuel and accept payment for the fuel, thereby allowing a customer to complete and pay for a fuel transaction without entering the store.
Such fuel pumps that accept payments include point-of-sale (POS) terminals that receive data with regard to a fuel amount dispensed, a cost per unit of dispensed fuel, customer payment information, and other data. An amount charged is based at least in part on an amount of dispensed fuel. Fuel pump POS terminals have become susceptible to tampering. The tampering may involve modifications to, or disabling of, data flowing to the POS terminal with regard to the amount of dispensed fuel, such as through manipulation of a fuel pump pulser or disabling a data communication connection of a POS terminal. Regardless of the tamper mode, when the POS terminal fails to receive or to report accurate data of a measure of dispensed fuel, financial transaction data, and other data, fuel theft is possible and theft detection is difficult.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds