WILKES-BARRE TOWNSHIP, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Police continue to investigate a credit card skimming scam at a local big box retailer. It could potentially affect hundreds of people, and the police need victims to come forward.
With the holiday season coming up, becoming a victim of a scam is more likely.
Investigators working on the latest scam in Luzerne County say it can happen anywhere from an ATM to a gas pump or even a self-checkout register.
The individuals who placed a skimming device at the Walmart in Wilkes-Barre Township have been identified and are now being charged.
“We have identified two of the three suspects in this skimming ring. They are a national skimming ring, they are from Romania, I know there are at least nine people in this crew I’ve talked to state police here in Pennsylvania, they’re investigating, the FBI has gotten involved,” said Wilkes-Barre Township Detective Robert Capperell.
With the holiday season around the corner, Detective Capperell tells 28/22 News it’s very likely that we will be seeing an increase in scams such as this.
“We have such a large business base that they are always hitting Wilkes-Barre Township with the credit card frauds the counterfeit money all that stuff,” Detective Capperell explained.
If you used the self-checkout between September 6 and September 18, police urge you to check your bank statements.
If you suspect you have been a victim of skimming, file a report immediately.
“They’ll come here they’ll make their report, and what we will do is we’ll backtrack the date and when the card was last used at the Walmart and see if it’s part of this. If it is, then we’re going to charge the suspects we have identified with access device fraud and more stuff because they stole the credit card numbers here,” Detective Capperell said.
Until anyone comes forward, Detective Capperell explained that “All we can charge is possession of a skimming device and attempt to commit theft by deception.”
Detective Capperell says if you find you have been a victim of any type of credit card fraud, the first thing you should do is close the account and then run a credit check on yourself to make sure that your identity was not also stolen in the process.
