Authorities cracking down on skimmers at New York City bodegas as scams are on the rise
NEW YORK (WABC) -- A team of law enforcement agencies will fan out to bodegas in the city in a crackdown on skimmers being used to lift payment card data.
The joint crackdown by Secret Service, USDA and the NYPD are working together to search for delis where important information is being stolen from customers.
This skimmer scam, which has grown in popularity in recent years, targets lower income residents who rely on bodegas and corner stores as a lifeline for daily purchases.
The criminals place the skimmers in the stores, then use the information to create fake payment cards and steal money from victims' accounts.
Unlike credit and debit cards issued by banks, benefit cards issued by public agencies don't have fraud protection, which limits a credit or debit cardholder's liability for unauthorized charges.
On Wednesday, authorities found a skimmer at a bodega in Bushwick.
"This store was using a cloned device, which is a device that is cloned that belongs to another store, so they could process these benefit EBT cards to steal the funds from actual victims," said Det. Daniel Allesandrino with the NYPD Financial Crimes Task Force.
Sometimes the stores are involved, but the scams are the work of criminal syndicates.
"Across the country, the Secret Service is leading an initiative to combat transnational organized crime groups that are specifically targeting our benefits programs here to the tune of $18 billion a year," said Secret Service Asst. Special Agent Michael Peck.
The scam has hit two programs particularly hard: food stamps, which are payments to low-income families that can be used only to buy groceries, and cash assistance, which is a no-strings-attached sum.
Both are monthly programs and are transferred to participants through a payment card known as an "electronic benefit transfer," or EBT cards.
And unlike debit and credit cards, these cards use basic payment technology -- usually just a magnetic stripe with an account number.
Most bank credit and debit cards now have chips, which use encryption to protect account information. The technology is too expensive for EBT cards, and are not required by federal law.
"We will be hitting over 700 stores throughout the city to mainly be community awareness, but we do have several locations that are using these clone terminals, and we will be out here today, hopefully affecting enforcement," Allesandrino said.
----------
* Get Eyewitness News Delivered
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
