The scam involving a card-reading device slipped inside a grocery chain's self-checkout terminals has ballooned to include nearly 140 Petaluma residents among more than 500 victims across the Bay Area who filed fraud reports with police and Lucky Supermarket staff.
U.S. Secret Service agents with expertise in financial fraud are now taking the lead in the investigation into what appeared to be a widespread scheme involving the surreptitious installation of a device that transmits financial data over wireless networks.
Executives with Lucky corporate owner Save Mart Supermarkets now count 24 stores from Petaluma to San Jose where tampered card scanners resulted in the theft of debit card information and losses.
“The number of stores targeted here suggests some level of sophistication,” said Andy Adelmann, special agent in charge of the service's electronic crimes task force in San Francisco and San Jose.
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