MarketPR
A three-day Secret Service operation across Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens in June removed 35 illegal skimming devices from bodega checkout terminals and prevented an estimated $36.5 million in Electronic Benefits Transfer fraud, the agency's fourth anti-skimming sweep in New York City this year.
The operation puts a street-level figure on a national problem: EBT card theft costs consumers and financial institutions more than $1 billion annually.
How the skimming network operates Hidden devices attached to checkout payment terminals capture EBT card data while pinhole cameras or keypad overlays record customer PINs, according to the FBI.
Criminals encode the stolen data onto counterfeit cards and drain Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program balances, often before recipients notice.
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