NEW YORK — Federal agents stopped a long line of customers at a Brooklyn convenience store on Tuesday and peeled a skimming device off the mounted card swiper in front of the stunned cashier.
While the customers grumbled, the agents saved them from getting ripped off when swiping their credit, debit or Electronic Benefit Transfer card to purchase such items as a bag of Cheetos or a bottle of Coca-Cola.
“I’m new to this store,” the surprised cashier said when a Secret Service agent presented her with a false keypad installed on the reader to steal money from the customers.
It was one of 12 skimming mechanisms discovered by 14 teams of investigators in a sweep through New York City on Tuesday, the first day of a three-day operation to bust up scams targeting food stamp recipients and other low-income consumers.
A fake overlay keypad skimming device …
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The Washington Times accompanied one of the teams of Secret Service agents, U.S. Department of Agriculture investigators and New York Police Department detectives on the hunt for the illegal skimmers in bodegas, convenience stores and ATMs.
The tiny electronic devices copy data from payment cards while pinhole cameras or false keypads record security PINs. They stole an estimated $1 billion in the U.S. last year, with roughly $100 million stolen annually from payments with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP cards.
“It’s very likely that much of this is being controlled from overseas,” said USDA Inspector General John Walk, who was part of the sweep through Brooklyn.
He said there has been a noticeable uptick in skimming fraud from Romanian transnational criminal organizations.
Mr. Walk said stealing from SNAP, which the USDA runs, is particularly reprehensible in that it hurts people in need. The program supplies about $96 billion in federal assistance each year.
“It’s really those specific beneficiaries who need some support and need that hand up to move forward and to provide for their family,” Mr. Walk said. “Those are really the victims of SNAP fraud.”
A fake overlay keypad skimming device …
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When the agents visited a Brooklyn pharmacy, Jeremy Brown said he had his SNAP benefits stolen by a card skimmer.
“They took over $350 off my card. They even took my cash. And the worst thing about it is there’s no way for me to receive any type of funds,” said Mr. Brown, 37. “It’s hard. We’re a family of five. So that type of money, it really impacts us financially being able to eat and starving and stuff like that.”
The skim-busting teams also deployed to the Bronx on Wednesday and Queens on Thursday, visiting 1,200 stores. The operation reflects President Trump’s escalating federal offensive against fraud.
One official called the card-reader rip-offs “a billion-dollar crisis hiding in plain sight.”
The criminals who install the skimmers on retailers’ machines typically come from outside the store, and the stolen money often goes to transnational gangs.
The store employees are “never in on it,” a Secret Service agent said.
Criminal gangs send teams of two or three people into stores to set up the scam. One person acts as a distraction, while another installs the skimming device. A skimmer is usually deployed for about two to four weeks, stealing as much as $1 million, according to the Secret Service.
The federal agents on the New York operation credited Mr. Trump’s focus on fraud with supplying more law enforcement resources to eradicate the problem at the state and local level.
“In the past, it may have been a lot harder to get cooperation from the U.S. attorney’s offices, to get cooperation from other law enforcement agencies, policies,” Mr. Walk said. “Now with the focus of President Trump and Vice President Vance on fraud, there is much more collaboration, much more partnership.”
A Secret Service agent said everything now moves at “a more rapid pace.”
