Fraud caught before info compromised
By Burton Cole
FALMOUTH — A search continues for two men wanted in connection to the placement of a credit card skimmer at a local grocery store.
“I don’t think they were able to get any credit card information because we caught it so quickly,” Falmouth police Detective Ken Hall said.
“I really don’t think anybody’s information got compromised.”
But as a precaution, anyone who purchased anything at Wyatt’s Supervalu, 1310 W. Shelby St., on July 8 or 9 should watch their credit card statements for unusual activity, Hall said.
Typically, how the process works is that someone places the “skimmer” device on a card reader, and then someone comes along days or weeks later to remove the skimmer with the credit card information that it’s collected.
“(The skimmer) doesn’t automatically transmit information,” Hall said.
The two men caught on security camera footage at Wyatt’s remain at large, but various police departments have tracked their vehicle from Cleveland to Lexington, he said.
An attempt was made to place a skimmer on a card reader at the Dollar General Market at 97 Ridgeway Ave., but the device proved to be incompatible with the store’s card readers.
Hall said police are working on getting federal agencies involved in the investigation.
SKIMMER
A credit card skimmer tends to be a bulky device that fits like a shell over top a point-of-sale card reader, disguising the fact that the real keypad lies underneath.
While they may not be noticed at a glance, often, a quick inspection will show that something doesn’t look right — buttons are hard to push or are off-center, the stripe reader sits at an odd angle, the card slot extends further than it does at other terminals, the reader seems loose or wiggles, or it doesn’t match the other card readers in the other checkout lines, gas pumps or other readers at the business in question.
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SKIMMER, continues on Page 3