Plano police say they discovered a skimming device in a place where you don’t typically hear about them-- the grocery store.
“I have a feeling that there will be hundreds upon hundreds of people’s personal information on there,” said Plano Police Detective Tony Vidmar, who is also a member of the U.S. Secret Service Financial Crimes Task Force.
Both agencies were involved in a citywide sweep in Plano on Friday morning for credit and debit card skimmers. Vidmar said places like banks, gas stations, big box retailers, and grocery stores were checked using a device that can detect whether a skimmer has been placed internally or externally at a point of sale.
Vidmar said the skimmer found Friday looks like what you’d see at any checkout. It attaches to the top of the machine, but on the bottom, there's a battery that can last days, he said, and a SIM card that stores customers' credit cards and PINs.
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“If you had 100 people come in and use this point of sale and they all used their card, what it'll do is it will show all 100 people’s credit card numbers and it’ll show a line item what their PIN numbers are,” explained Vidmar.
Vidmar said there's been an uptick in fraud and forgery and that the busy shopping season presents a crime of opportunity.
“What a perfect opportunity for crooks to get out and go ahead and put in work,” said Vidmar.
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He said work now begins on tracking down who put the skimmer inside the unnamed grocery store.
But until then, he has a message, “Word to the wise to the bad people. We're trying to do everything we can to deter it and to make our citizens more safe.”
Police said being aware of skimmers when shopping is your best defense. If the top of the credit card machine moves at all during checkout, it may be a sign that it's been tampered with.
