On Thursday, the U.S. Secret Service joined state and local law enforcement partners in Illinois and Indiana to complete a 2-day payment card skimming and electronic Benefit Transfer fraud operation.
The sting save residents an estimated $1.8 million in prevented losses, officials said. Conducted with the help of the Chicago Police Department, Oak Brook Police Department, Valparaiso (Indiana) Police Department. Hobart (Indiana) Police Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of the Inspector General, the Secret Service visited more than 200 businesses in the Chicago are to check for and remove illegal skimming devices from ATMs, gas pumps and point-of-sale terminals.
Officials said six skimming devices were recovered during the operations that checked nearly 1,000 point-of-sale terminals, 416 gas pumps and 122 ATMs. All of the skimmers were found in Cook County, officials said.
“Illegal skimming devices and EBT fraud in the Chicago area are an ongoing epidemic that hurt everyday consumers both locally and across the United States,” Dai Tran, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Chicago Field Office, said. “I’m proud that the Secret Service and its partners are investing time and energy to identify and remove illegal skimming devices as well as helping to educate businesses on methods to protect their customers.”
Officials said that law enforcement has seen an increase in skimming over the past year and a half, and that those efforts target EBT cards particularly. EBT fraud target the country’s most vulnerable communities by going after money that is automatically deposited into government assistance accounts. Targeting EBT cards enables criminals who steal card information to time their fraudulent withdrawals and purchases around the state government’s monthly deposits, officials said.