Mississippi operation finds three card skimmers, inspects 421 stores
A multiagency law enforcement effort in Mississippi inspected 2,150 payment terminals across 421 stores and removed three card skimmers, officials said.
The work was conducted as part of Operation Stronghold and involved more than 30 state, federal and local agencies, including the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, the Mississippi Department of Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, officials said.
Teams entered retail locations to look for devices criminals attach to point-of-sale terminals to steal debit, credit and SNAP card data, and trained store employees on how to identify and report skimmers, the attorney general’s office said. A similar operation last fall, called Scammer and Fraud Enforcement, visited about 900 businesses and inspected nearly 6,000 terminals, seizing 53 compromised devices, the office said.
“It’s important because fraudsters can easily slip these skimmers on these card reading terminals in stores and they in turn collect data, information, from it, and then they steal millions of dollars before anyone even notices,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said. Fitch said a single recovered skimmer can represent an estimated $1 million in potential fraud and that stolen money is often used to finance other criminal activity.
John Walk, inspector general for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the devices also enable criminals to clone SNAP cards and steal benefits. Walk said investigators determined the three skimmers found this year affected about 3,000 victims and that those responsible are often tied to international gangs. Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell praised the interagency collaboration. Officials advised consumers to check terminals for loose attachments, use tap-to-pay when available and avoid entering four-digit passcodes when possible to limit exposure to skimming fraud.
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