The U.S. Secret Service, working with federal, state and local law enforcement partners, conducted 22 Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) fraud and ATM skimming outreach operations nationwide in 2025.
Law enforcement visited more than 9,000 businesses during the operations and inspected nearly 60,000 point-of-sale terminals, gas pumps and ATMs. Officers removed 411 illegal skimming devices, preventing an estimated loss of more than $428.1 million.
Criminals often steal EBT and other payment card numbers by installing illegal skimming devices on ATMs, gas pumps and merchant point-of-sale terminals that capture card information and encode that data onto another card with a magnetic strip. Criminals time their fraudulent withdrawals and purchases around EBT recipients’ monthly deposits.
“The U.S. Secret Service is committed to combatting EBT fraud and credit card skimming throughout the country. These proactive operations are aimed at finding and removing devices before criminals can recover the stolen card numbers they contain,” Kyo Dolan, U.S. Secret Service’s Office of Field Operations assistant director, said. “These operations are only the start. We are working closely with our local, state, federal and international law enforcement partners to investigate and dismantle the criminal organizations that perpetrate these crimes.”
Law enforcement also distributed educational materials to businesses about EBT fraud and skimming.