Card skimming on the rise across South Florida
MIAMI - Skimming is on the rise once more, putting South Florida consumers at risk.
Skimming happens when devices are illegally installed on an ATM, a store credit card reader, or a fuel pump, capturing data or recording a credit or debit cardholder's PIN number.
Now thieves are targetting people who can least afford it. Criminals are skimming Electronic Benefits Cards that families use for the federal program known as SNAP, which stands for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Moneka Williams said it happened to her. The mother of four who lives in Orlando gets about $800 a month in SNAP benefits. But when she went to use her card, it had been drained.
"I told the clerk to scan it again, and it was a zero balance," she said.
Williams says it happened to her children's father and his mother. She isn't sure where it happened.
"They had my information, my PIN. No one knows my PIN besides me and my children," she said.
Last year in Florida the number of compromised cards, including all types of cards, was 7,901, that's up from 2,873 in 2019. That's a 175 percent increase.
"A big part of that is coming out of the pandemic, a more normal lifestyle," said T.J. Horan with FICO.
FICO is a leading analytics software company that fights fraud.
"Also fraudsters are looking for weak links and opportunities presented to them," he said.
To avoid being victimized, Horan says don't write down your PIN number and use contactless payment when possible, or pay in cash.
Florida started cracking down on gas pump skimmers a few years back. Even so, federal agents said skimmers were running rampant between 2017 and 2021.
"It wasn't unusual to arrest someone with boxes of skimmers," said Charles Leopard, an assistant special agent with the US Secret Service in Miami. "They would go up and down an interstate like I-95 and install within 30 seconds on a Friday, and pick the numbers up on Monday and resell the numbers," he said.
Credit card companies moved away from the magnetic strip to a chip system in 2016 which cut down on skimming but thieves are finding ways to infiltrate the chips, called shimming. A shim is inserted into the card reader allowing the thief to copy the chip card information and put that information on a magnetic strip card.
"It's very organized. They travel together, people who make skimmers and shimmers. There are people who insert them, called the mechanics. Then there are networks of money mules. They reap the reward from the stolen information," said Leopard.
Paco Velez runs Feeding South Florida which helps families whose SNAP benefit cards have been compromised.
"This is devastating for a family. It's disgusting to do to a poor family," he said.
Feeding South Florida also helps dozens of people sign up for SNAP benefits every day.
"We ask families to change their PINs frequently," said Velez, "to avoid fraud."