CONNECTICUT, USA — Amid a rise in credit card skimmers, state officials showed how to spot the scanners and gave a warning to criminals: get caught and be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
“There has been an increase in credit card skimming over the past couple of years, and in particular, over the past couple of months,” said Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner Bryan Cafferelli.
“Just in the last four or five weeks we have discovered at least 12 to 15 incidents before they happened,” added Wayne Pesce, the president of the Connecticut Food Association.
Criminals who have roots in overseas organized crime are preying on SNAP benefit users in Connecticut and staying one step ahead of them is tricky.
Connecticut State Police Sgt. Luke Davis said, “There are people coming from eastern bloc countries and they are recruiting people here in the United States to help them with these crimes, usually as being a mule for planting a device, removing a device or being the collector.”
A card skimmer is usually installed on top of an existing credit card terminal as an overlay and can be hard to spot.
“One of the real issues is why is their technology so easy to get on the black web. Anybody can go out there and get this equipment and go into business,” noted Pesce.
Tips to spot a skimmer scanner include looking for unusual gaps or cracks, tampered stickers, harder to press keys and buttons or mismatched colors.
“This is some of the most inhumane and heartless crime you see. These are folks who really need their SNAP benefit to take care of a kid who needs a meal,” said Gov. Ned Lamont.
He said that scammers typically increase their activity at the beginning of each month when SNAP food benefits get reloaded onto cards. Cards that don’t have the same security features as your credit card.
“One of the challenges we have regarding our SNAP cards is that they are magnetic strips so they don’t have the ability to tap and they also right now, cannot be loaded into a wallet. There’s a significant cost associated with that,” explained Andrea Barton-Reeves, the commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Social Services.
From 2023 to 2024, $3.7 million in Connecticut SNAP benefits alone were stolen.
State police advise people to use gas pumps closest to the building, avoid third party ATMs not associated with brick-and-mortar banks and use their other hand to cover PIN codes.
“People who do this have no shame in who they are targeting,” added Cafferelli.
The Department of Social Services said they have processed nearly 8,000 applications for replacement SNAP benefits and have created a unit specifically to handle the paperwork. They also said that federal funding for reimbursement is limited and is part of a pilot program that is set to expire in October.
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Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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