Credit Card Skimmers Found At 5 MA Grocery Stores

ACROSS MASSACHUSETTS — Credit card skimmers have been found at grocery stores in several Massachusetts towns in recent weeks. The skimmers have been found at Roche Bros. Supermarkets, NBC Boston reported.

A credit card skimmer is a device used to steal sensitive information from credit and debit cards. While they often are associated with gas stations, many of the devices have been found at grocery stores in recent months.

Credit card skimmers were found at the following stores:

• Sudbury Farms in Sudbury
• Sudbury Farms in Needham
• Brothers Marketplace in Weston
• Roche Bros. Supermarket in Wellesley
• Roche Bros. Supermarket in Natick

The skimmers were located at self-checkout registers in all instances, Boston.com reported.

A worker at the Sudbury Farms store in Sudbury noticed an inconsistency at one of the self-checkout lanes, which led to the discovery of the skimmer. Roche Bros. then inspected registers at all their stores and found the devices at four other locations, according to Boston.com.

The news comes after several credit card skimmers were found elsewhere in Massachusetts and New Hampshire during October and November.

Credit card skimmers were found at Market Baskets in Haverhill, Somerville, and Reading in Massachusetts and Nashua and Concord in New Hampshire, according to Boston.com. Police believe these incidents may be connected.

In Concord, police found credit card skimmers at a Walmart on Oct.19 and a Market Basket on Oct. 27. Concord police said that the devices were installed by the same two people.

Police said that a telltale sign with skimmers used in that case was the card chip reader slot was inoperable and appeared "jammed," causing the customer to swipe the card so that the magnetic reader could steal the card information.

The FBI estimates that skimming costs financial institutions and consumers more than $1 billion each year.

See related: Credit Card Skimmers Found At Several MA Grocery Stores