First off, I live in the USA and I haven’t seen a gas station where you could pump without paying first in at least 20 years. I’m currently living in one of the more rural areas of the country and every pump has a card reader so you can pay right at the pump without even going inside. I sometimes see old stickers on the pumps that point out that leaving without paying is a crime, but I cannot imagine how anyone could actually do this. The pumps will not dispense fuel until you pay.

This tells me that the whole purpose of the set up described in the article as a way for this security company to scam people. The technology to prevent driving off without paying is decades old. There’s no reason for this situation to exist.

Second…

The “stress and anxiety” from the situation led to the couple paying DCBL the debt in order to “just move on from it”.

This perfectly describes the business model of debt collection companies. Harass people until they pay whether they really owe any money or not.

First off, I live in the USA and I haven’t seen a gas station where you could pump without paying first

And I live in Slovakia and haven’t yet seen pre-paid gas station either.
You pump the gas, go in, tell the cashier the pump number, pay, go back and leave.

In the Netherlands its a mix of both these days.

During the daytime you pump, and then walk inside to pay afterwards. At night, when the building itself is closed, you pay using the terminal and only then are you allowed to start fueling up

There is also self-service stations without a shop. They are pre-paid by default.

Yes, this is how it is in Germany too and in my experience travelling it is like that in a lot of Europe.

Unmanned stations are a relatively recent thing here, so the first time I wanted to fill up at one I thought the pump was broken before I realised I have to pay first lol.