Data Breach Sunday: Debit Card Skimming At Lunardi’s Supermarket

May 11, 2008

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A while ago, we posted about a data breach at Hannaford Bros. grocery stores. Now another store has been used by thieves to steal customers’ personal information. The Lunardi’s supermarket in Los Gatos, California was caught up in a debit card skimming ring and thieves have been having a hey-day hitting customers’ bank accounts.

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day where I was saying that I hate using my debit card and use it as little as possible. Situations like this are precisely why.

In the Lunardi’s case, a payment machine was actually swapped out at one of the checkout lines. If you were unlucky enough to choose that lane, your card number and PIN were recorded.

Once the recording was done, thieves could then make a fake card and have complete access to your bank account.

To date, $225,000 has been stolen as a result of this scam. Police have arrested (and subsequently released on bail of course) 2 men involved in the case. Unfortunately, it was the Orange County police that did the arresting. By the time Los Gatos police found out about it, the men were already cut loose.

This sounds like the sort of thing that would be an inside job, but so far there hasn’t been any indications that that is the case.

George Silvestri, an attorney for Lunardi’s, said the chain has replaced the payment devices at all seven of its Bay Area locations with machines that are locked onto the checkout stands. The South San Francisco-based attorney added that Lunardi’s employees with access to these devices have been trained in security procedures recommended by law enforcement and banking authorities.

If you were one of the 222 victims of the Lunardi’s breach, or have been a victim of some other ATM or debit scam, you do have some protection. We did a post a while ago about how to recover from debit card fraud.

Do cases like this make you more hesitant to use your debit card instead of cash or credit?

Source: San Jose Mercury News via Breach Blog

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