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.

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.

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.

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.