NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Niagara Falls Walmart has become the latest subject of a credit card skimming device.
Niagara Falls Police said the device was found at a cash register at the Walmart on 1540 Military Road.
Police said it happened Friday night after a Walmart representative stated they were checking the Niagara Falls store when the device was found.
The incident was caught on store surveillance cameras, showing two men placing the device over the credit card machine about 8 p.m. Friday. It was in place till 9:45 p.m. when it was discovered, the Niagara Gazette stated.
Officers were told Walmart employees would go through the computer system and determine how many shoppers had used a card at the register after the device was placed.
Avant Research founder and chief technologist, Arun Vishwanath, said having good 'cyber hygiene' is a way to protect yourself before you fall victim to a card skimmer.
"Don't use a debit card. Use a credit card and use a card that has a chip in it," Arun Vishwanath explained.
He said better yet the safest thing to do is using a digital wallet like an apple card. it's touch less, there's no transaction, the credit card numbers are encrypted, so a skimmer just won't work on that.
"What I recommend is using a card that gives you mealtime updates. A lot of new credit cards allow you to basically setup a text messaging process by which every time the card is used, you get a text message. You know instantly what what the text message was. So this was, if you had to stop a card, or stop a transaction or stop a payment or even report a card as stolen, you can do that very quickly," Vishwanath said.
After the credit card skimmer was found at a Niagara Falls Walmart cash register we reached out to Niagara Falls Police for an update on the investigation and received this statement:
Walmart released this statement Monday afternoon:
“Providing customers with a safe shopping experience is a top priority. We’re continually reviewing protocols and adding enhanced security measures to better protect in-store transactions.
This situation remains an on-going criminal investigation. We’re actively engaged with various law enforcement agencies and refer all questions to them.
Customers concerned they may have been impacted can contact their card provider or Walmart Customer Care Team at 800-925-6278.”
