JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The U.S. Secret Service teamed up with local law enforcement to sweep 120 businesses across Jacksonville as part of a state-wide outreach operation to take action against rampant card skimming.
According to federal agents, scammers are now targeting EBT funds, defrauding the nation’s most vulnerable communities.
News4JAX got exclusive access to the U.S. Secret Service’s first-of-its-kind operation as agents went hunting for skimming devices in Jacksonville.
From one store to another, federal agents blanketed Jacksonville scanning for skimmers.
“We have a joint operation with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Agriculture. It’s a two-tier mission for us. The first part of the mission is to identify, locate, and extract any skimmers that are found on ATMs and or point-of-sale terminals or gas pumps. If we happen to find one, we’ll extract it and bring it for further investigation,” Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Jacksonville Field Office Peter Andrews said.
The second focus of their mission was education.
“We’re going throughout the state spreading awareness of point-of-sale skimmers, ATM skimmers, ‘Have you seen anything like this in your store before?’” Andrews asked a Target employee.
Andrews said the more the customers and businesses know, the higher the chances of getting this issue stopped.
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Law enforcement agencies have seen a nationwide increase in skimming over the past 18 months, with international criminals successfully targeting EBT cards, or Electronic Benefit Transfer, for those who need government assistance.
Without any tap-to-pay or chip technology, the cards used by SNAP recipients in Florida always have to be swiped, making it easier for criminals to steal your taxpayer dollars from the most vulnerable population.
It’s a big reason why grocery stores were targeted for this operation. News4JAX asked Special Agent Chad Balsamo to walk us through how he’s checking for illegal skimming devices.
“I’m just looking to see if there’s anything on top that feels loose, you know, any type of foreign overlay that’s not supposed to be on the device. Then, we can also insert this skimming checking device that Target provided for their point-of-sale terminals, which if there was one, you wouldn’t be able to insert this all the way,” Balsamo said.
Self-checkouts were another big focus for federal agents because the convenient terminals offer criminals better chances of swiping multiple victims’ card information.
“So these terminals that are frequently used are more likely than say something like 12 which they probably open at Christmas time,” Balsamo said.
Andrews said Florida is a hotspot for scammers using these devices.
“Everywhere from Miami up to Jacksonville, we certainly in the Jacksonville field office have had multiple investigations into skimming devices,” Andrews said.
Federal agents visited more than 472 businesses across Florida as part of the effort to remove illegal skimmers — but no devices were recovered in Jacksonville.
In Orlando, our sister station WKMG was there as police found and dismantled a skimming device at a point-of-sale terminal.
In total, 13 skimming devices were recovered statewide. The U.S. Secret Service estimated their removal prevented a potential loss of $1.3 million.
More than 3,500 point-of-sale terminals, gas pumps and ATMs were inspected, which means thousands of business owners were also educated on what to be on the lookout for.
“Well if you ever find a device, you can reach out to JSO, you can call us as well,” Balsamo said.
To protect your money, use debit and credit cards with chip or tap-to-pay technology wherever you can.
There are fewer illegal skimming devices that can steal chip data versus magnetic strip data.