On June 7, 2026, the Timberville Police Department in Virginia warned in a Facebook post (archived) about an alleged gas station scam. According to the post, criminals were inserting screws into gas pump nozzle holders to keep transactions open after customers drove away, allowing the criminals to then fill up for free on the previously swiped credit or debit card.
(Town of Timberville accessed via Facebook)
Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo and Google found no shortage of local ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC news affiliates — as well as the LiveNOW from FOX streaming channel — reporting the Timberville warning as fact.
Those searches — plus additional reverse image searches — led to posts spreading the warning on Instagram (archived), Reddit (archived) and TikTok (archived). Some videos documented confrontations with purported gas station workers, as well. Snopes also received reader mail and numerous site searches asking for the truth of this matter.
In short, this was a viral hoax. The people and organizations promoting the unsubstantiated warning failed to cite even one credible, verified report of criminals using screws to defraud consumers at gas pumps. Some reports featured commentary from experts and officials offering general safety advice, though none of their remarks confirmed cases of such activity. Because of this, we've rated the claim false.
Some news outlets previously reporting about the warning specifically referenced a May 8 Facebook post (archived) from the Queen Anne's County Office of the Sheriff in Maryland that initially said criminals were carrying out the scam. The office later updated the post to acknowledge its unfounded nature, and a spokesperson told Snopes they had not received credible reports of the scam, saying officers found one report originated as a maintenance issue.
One of the primary videos (archived) users reposted about the purported scam showed a person looking at screws in gas pump nozzle holders at a Shell station. Shell spokesperson Natalie Gunnell told us, in part, "We are not aware of any reported incidents, described below, occurring at Shell-owned sites. As a standard safeguard, our fuel pumps are designed with an automatic shut-off feature that ends a transaction after a period of inactivity."
Since our original report, we have yet to locate and verify a single reported case of a criminal carrying out the screw scam as described, much less the alleged activity widely occurring — as social media users essentially claimed.
We emailed the Timberville Police Department, as well as numerous oil and gasoline corporations, companies that own gas stations, additional law enforcement offices and several news media outlets to try to obtain any credible reports of criminals carrying out the supposed gas pump screw scam. Spokespeople for RaceTrac and Walmart, as well as a representative for Phillips 66, Conoco and 76, said they were either unaware of any reports or had not received reports of such activity. We will update this article if we receive further information.
The beginnings of the rumor
The aforementioned search engine queries located a Nov. 8, 2025, Reddit post (archived) on a subreddit dedicated to the city of Phoenix, in which a user shared two photos with the title, "Getting gas at Fry's gas station and I saw this on 2 pumps." The user mentioned seeing screws and wrote, "I had to press pump down hard to end my transaction." We contacted the user via Reddit's chat feature and emailed The Kroger Co. — the owner of Fry's Food Stores — to ask for details.
In a statement to Snopes, Phoenix Police Department spokesperson Lorraine Fernandez said the department was "not aware of any confirmed widespread trend involving this activity in Phoenix." Maricopa County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Dave Moyer said they "have not had any reports" in the county where Phoenix is located.
(Comfortable_Brain856 accessed via Reddit)
Weeks later, on Nov. 27, a TikTok user posted a brief video (archived) showing a gas pump nozzle holder with a visible screw. The text caption warned of a new alleged holiday scam.
In December, the Motor1.com and MotorBiscuit.com blogs reported on the TikTok video. Both websites' authors noted finding no credible information of victims reporting the scam to police.
Queen Anne's County post
On May 8, the Queen Anne's County Office of the Sheriff posted the aforementioned "gas pump scam alert" on Facebook, potentially originating the "screw method" name.
The post featured potential signs of AI in the writing, in particular with the use of a handful of emojis and the bulleted list. Scans of the post's text with the AI detection websites Copyleaks.com, GPTZero.me and Scribbr.com all found a likelihood of AI usage. (Such websites often feature disclaimers about a lack of complete reliability, including with Scribber.com saying that "no AI model on the market can guarantee 100% accuracy, including ours.")
Spokesperson Kaitlyn Briselli told Snopes via email that the sheriff's office had "not confirmed a local criminal case specifically involving screws being used to manipulate the holster mechanism," saying in part:
Our office shared the warning as a public-awareness advisory after receiving multiple reports of possible gas pump tampering with claims of finding screws and pump switching-type activity. To date, our office has received one report involving a placed screw in a gas pump holster. Following an investigation, that particular incident was determined to be related to a maintenance issue, and not criminal activity. We were also sent additional reports involving possible pump tampering at a second gas station within the county, which remain under investigation at this time.
The sheriff's office later updated the post several times, eventually labeling the claim as "unfounded." Briselli told us the office sometimes uses AI "to help with formatting, grammar, or editing while drafting," and that in this instance "AI was not used to generate the content of the actual post but was utilized for some minor edits." Briselli added, "Our office does apologize for any confusion this choice of word may have caused."
Following the Queen Anne's County Facebook post, local news media outlets cited the post's content without investigating whether records of such a crime actually existed. One TikTok user's video (archived) receiving millions of views featured the sheriff's office Facebook post. That clip featured flat-sounding narration that was possibly generated with AI.
Around the same time, Baltimore-area radio station WCBM published an article with the headline "Sheriff's Office sounds the alarm on gas pump scam aimed at seniors in Queen Anne's County." The link now leads to an error page. We emailed the station to ask why its staff removed the story.
On May 13, another law enforcement office posted (archived) the scam warning — this time in Texas.
On the next day, the website Moneywise reported about the rumor, primarily citing the WCBM article. Moneywise syndicated the article on AOL and Yahoo, as well. We reached out to Moneywise to ask about the disappearing WCBM article, as well as whether they located any credible and verified victims' reports.
Then, on May 18, the Houston-based news station KPRC aired (archived) a story saying the gas pump screw scam was "spreading across the country." The video from the news broadcast appeared on the NBC affiliate's website with the headline "Gas pump 'Screw Method' warning: How thieves can steal hundreds using your credit card." The report did not present any verified records of criminals victimizing consumers specifically with the "screw method."
That report featured a brief interview with Harris County Constable Alan Rosen providing tips on how to remain safe and vigilant at the gas pump. We emailed Rosen's office to ask whether he was aware of any reports of the "screw method" gas pump scam. An unidentified official responded, "We have not received any such reports." We also contacted the KPRC reporter to ask whether he had located reports of criminals using the "screw method."
The report further mentioned a "pump-switching" scam a Pennsylvania news station reported about in April, citing two victims. That scam involves criminals offering to help consumers fill up their tanks and later adding gas to their own vehicles, without the use of a screw.
In early June, CBS News Chicago published an article reporting the scam as fact. The Timberville post followed, as did all of the local outlets' reports citing that post.
For further reading, Snopes has previously reported about other warnings involving vehicles, including that human traffickers aimed to attack victims by leaving sunglasses on door handles, rings on windshields or zip ties on side mirrors, as well as painting the letters "AF" to mark cars for "alone female."