Secret Service partners with Columbus law enforcement for card skimmer crackdown
As part of a statewide sweep, the U.S. Secret Service joined the Columbus Police Department and the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday to check for payment card skimming devices at local businesses.
Daniel Reich, resident agent in charge with the Secret Service, said they focused on stores that accept EBT cards.
“They get loaded money at the beginning of each month, and a lot of the times, the money — if they get hit with the skimmers — the money will disappear before the person who’s supposed to receive the benefits can proceed,” he said.
The skimmer is a device that is typically an overlay to capture information from the magnetic stripe and EMV chip on a credit card or other type of payment card, according to the Secret Service’s website. POS (point-of-sale) terminal overlay devices also can capture keypad entries. such as PIN numbers, according to the website.
Reich suggested using the tap features on cards.
“Right now, the tap technology is a little ahead of where the fraudsters are,” he said. “. . . That’s the problem with EBT cards: They do not have the tapability, so they have to be inserted or swiped.”
Reich said this is how criminals capture the information from the EBT cards.
As of noon Thursday, Secret Service agents, MCSO investigators and CPD officers had found at least four skimming devices at Columbus stores.
At a store on Fort Benning Road, MCSO Investigator Don Sinclair peeled back the false keypad from one of the POS terminals with a skimmer device on it. Underneath the false keypad, the backlight typically seen from that terminal’s keypad could be seen.
MCSO Maj. John Thomas said the sheriff’s office has investigators trained on “forensic technological devices” who were part of Thursday’s operation with the Secret Service.
Thomas said the sheriff’s office welcomes any opportunity to partner with federal agencies. He said the four skimming devices they had captured surprised him, based on intelligence they had from previous operations in other cities.
Sgt. Jane Edenfield, with CPD’s Financial Crimes Unit, said she wasn’t shocked by the skimmers found. She said two previous CPD investigations found three skimmers in one investigation and two in the other investigation.
Edenfield said the skimming groups CPD identified in previous investigations are from other parts of the country or outside the country.
“The charges that are being made are not in this area,” she said. “They’re nationwide.”
Edenfield said she is glad the operation happened. She called it “a relief” to get the devices ”out of here.”
By the end of the operation Thursday, law enforcement seized eight skimmer devices in Columbus after checking around 80 stores, according to Secret Service public affairs specialist Joe Biesk.
He said each skimmer could generate more than $1 million over the life of the device for the criminals.
A previous operation conducted by the Secret Service in Miami-Dade and Broward counties in Florida led to the seizure of 10 skimming devices after checking 613 businesses, according to a news release on the Secret Service’s website.
The skimmers seized Thursday will be entered into evidence, and investigators will review them to determine whether they generate leads or follow-ups, according to Biesk.
This story was originally published August 8, 2025 at 11:21 AM.