The U.S. Secret Service, in partnership with local and state law enforcement from the Boston area, recently conducted a three-day outreach operation between Sept. 23-25 to combat illegal payment card skimming and Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) fraud.
Law enforcement visited 700 businesses checking for and removing illegal skimming devices from ATMs, gas pumps and point-of-sale terminals, and distributing educational materials about EBT fraud and skimming. Officers recovered 16 illegal skimming devices.
“The U.S. Secret Service – Boston Field Office, along with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners, are steadfast in our commitment to safeguarding the nation’s financial infrastructure and protecting our communities from fraudsters,” Randy Maloney, special agent in charge of the Boston Field Office, said. “This proactive operation, and those like it around the country, highlights the level of cooperation needed to combat the criminal enterprises that perpetrate these callous acts.”
Nationwide, there has been an increase in skimming particularly targeting EBT cards. Skimming technology captures card information and encodes that data onto another card with a magnetic strip. Annually, skimming costs financial institutions and consumers more than $1 billion.
Criminals who steal EBT card information time their fraudulent withdrawals and purchases around the monthly deposits into government assistance accounts.