At least five Walmart stores impacted by credit card skimmers
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Skimming devices have been installed by scammers in at least five Walmart stores this past week, respective police departments confirm to NewsChannel 9.
The coordinated fraud wasn’t made public until an email to the Your Stories team about the case in Granby, later confirmed by New York State Police.
Since the Granby discovery, investigations have been opened after devices were found in East Syracuse, Camillus and Auburn.
Walmart Stores Hit By Skimmers
Granby, Lane #7
East Syracuse, Lane #6
Camillus, Lane #7
Auburn, No Lane Shared
Oswego, No Lane Shared
In each case, the machine was installed on Sunday, July 2 and discovered on Wednesday, July 5.
No police departments have any reports of victims yet, but people who used their credit cards over those four days at the impacted Walmarts should be on high alert of fraudulent charges.
Surveillance images released by police in Auburn, Camillus and Oswego show the same three people either entering the store or tampering with the credit card terminal.
They’re accused of adding a skimming device, which is a cover that looks just like the machine, but it steals a customer’s credit card information when the card is inserted.
Oswego Camillus Auburn
The FBI’s Supervisory Special Agent Samantha Baltzersen reviewed the case for NewsChannel 9. She said, “It’s been called ‘gutsy’ to put those devices where they were located, because it’s a very public area.”
The FBI says it will only become involved in the investigation if the crimes cross state lines or if requested by local police.
Most skimmers attack the most vulnerable cards: cards requiring the swipe of a magnetic strip.
Advanced skimmers can even steal information from the newer chip cards, but it’s less frequent.
Police in Central New York haven’t determined how advanced the skimmers are used in this string.
Experts aren’t surprised at least five stores were hit in the same time period.
“They’ll try to hit where they see weaknesses in the system or weaknesses in the locations,” said Debbie Cobb, a senior director of product management at FICO.
While FICO is known for it’s FICO Score, the other half of the company’s mission is to provide solutions to financial institutions and payment processors, including expertise in fraud.
“Anytime they see a device that’s been tampered with, that looks like it has something attached, to exercise caution and not use that device,” she offered as advice to avoid skimming.
Advice from FICO
What should consumers look out for?
When consumers go to make a payment, they should take a close look at the part of the device where you insert your card. If anything about it seems loose or looks disconnected from the actual system, that should be a red flag. If something looks suspicious, you should not complete the payment.
Recent advances in technology have enabled fraudsters to have more sophisticated and harder to detect card skimming technology. For example, fraudsters will install microscopic cameras at the top of ATMs or other points of sale that look like a small pinhole. Consumers should keep an eye out for any small holes or disjointed parts of the payment system that might be capturing their confidential information. Fraudsters will use these cameras to observe your PIN code, so it is very important to make a habit of completely covering the PIN pad when entering your information.
How can consumers protect themselves from card skimming?
Source: WSYR
