Popular Grocery Store Kroger Triggers Police Warning After Self-Checkout Scams Customers

If you’re a frequent customer of Kroger grocery stores who has, at one time or another, used the store’s self-checkout, you may want to double-check that you haven’t been scammed.

Police in Elkins, West Virginia, warned the customers of the local Kroger’s location that they had discovered a scamming device hidden in the self-checkout kiosks this week, according to a Monday report from The U.S. Sun.

The device found is known as a skimmer.

Scammers can place the skimmer right over a checkout station’s card reader without anyone knowing.

When customers swipe their cards through the skimmer — thinking they’re just paying for their groceries — the device steals their credit card information.

Trending:

Trump Takes Hilariously Vicious Shot at Biden Day Before Debate: ‘Ask Your Doctor About BIDENICA’

Police have obtained security footage of the men they believe to be behind the scam and are currently searching for them.

Thanks to a camera on one of the store’s self-check-out devices, the police have a close-up shot of one of the men’s faces.

Although the device was found on Friday, authorities believe it may have been in place since June 15, according to a Facebook post from Elkins City Hall.

Do you shop at Kroger?

In a 2011 press release, the FBI warned about the onset of such devices.

“The devices planted on ATMs are usually undetectable by users—the makers of this equipment have become very adept at creating them, often from plastic or plaster, so that they blend right into the ATM’s façade,” the release noted.

“The specific device used is often a realistic-looking card reader placed over the factory-installed card reader. Customers insert their ATM card into the phony reader, and their account info is swiped and stored on a small attached laptop or cell phone or sent wirelessly to the criminals waiting nearby.”

“In addition, skimming typically involves the use of a hidden camera, installed on or near an ATM, to record customers’ entry of their PINs into the ATM’s keypad. We have also seen instances where, instead of a hidden camera, criminals attach a phony keypad on top of the real keypad … which records every keystroke as customers punch in their PINs.”

Only a few weeks prior, local Atlanta outlet WSB-TV reported that Atlanta police were looking for two men who had planted a skimmer device at yet another Kroger location.

Related:

Another One: Illegal Immigrant Nabbed After Deadly Chick-fil-A Shooting – Report

In that instance, security camera footage showed the two men committing the crime.

Police were told of the device on June 6 and later discovered it had been in place for four full days.

So whether you’re in West Virginia, Georgia or anywhere else, and whether you’re shopping at a Kroger or any other grocery store chain, be on the lookout for skimmers and scammers.

And, as police have warned shoppers in Elkins this week, always be on the lookout for suspicious charges on your account.


An Important Message from Our Staff:

 

In just a few months, the world is going to change forever. The 2024 election is the single most important election of our lifetime. 

 

We here at The Western Journal are committed to covering it in a way the establishment media simply will not: We will tell the truth, and they will lie.

 

But Big Tech and the elites don’t want the truth out. That’s why they have cut us off from 90% of advertisers. Imagine if someone cut your monthly income by 90%. That’s what they’ve done to people like us. 

 

As a staff, we are asking you to join us to fight this once-in-a-lifetime fight. Without you not only will The Western Journal fail, but America will fail also. As Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

 

Will you support The Western Journal today and become a member

 

A Western Journal Membership costs less than one coffee and breakfast sandwich each month, and it gets you access to ALL of our content — news, commentary, and premium articles. You’ll experience a radically reduced number of ads, and most importantly you will be vitally supporting the fight for America’s soul in 2024.

 

This is the time. America will live or die based on what happens this year. Please join us to get the real truth out and to fight the elites, Big Tech, and the people who want America to fail. Together, we really can save the country.

 

Thank you for your support!

 

P.S. Please stand with us!

Source link