If you were checking out a store - do you think you would notice a skimming device? "I saw a little green light behind it, and when I took my key, it came right off," said Junior Figueroa, of Montville.
He noticed two skimming devices at the Montville 7-Eleven earlier this week.
He says his past experience working in retail helped him realize, but says it was a shocking discovery. "I felt bad for all those people that went in the morning until previous days and things like that. They probably got hit," said Figueroa.
With a recent uptick of skimming reports in varying stores in at least eight towns, state officials are urging shoppers to stay vigilant, keep track of their bank accounts, and frequently change their EBT pin.
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The state says from 2023 to 2024, $3.7 million in EBT benefits have been stolen, with over 7,500 applications for benefit replacements processed.
"Those are hundreds and hundreds of families who have had the unfortunate experience of going up and paying and attempting to pay for their groceries and finding that all of their benefits have been stolen from the card," said Andrea Barton Reeves, of Connecticut Social Services.
The Connecticut Food Association is developing best practices for retailers to get ahead of the culprits. One method is placing stickers on multiple points of contact on the cash registers and pin pads to ensure they haven't been skimmed.
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Another is checking every single pin pad and chip reader during open and close.
"In the last four or five weeks, we have discovered at least 12 to 15 incidents before they've happened. So we're out in front of it at this point. And we're seeing an acceleration of this type of activity," said Wayne Pesce, of the Connecticut Food Association.
The state says customers changing their EBT pin as often as possible has reduced stolen benefits by 48 percent from June to August.
Skimmers are only marginally wider than the device they're on top of, but they might feel loose or could be a different color than the rest of the machine.
When checking out officials recommend using tap and go payment to avoid any skimming happening if devices are put on the register or in the chip reader.
But even for knowledgeable customers like Figueroa, encountering a skimming device is something he never thought he'd actually see.
"You never know who's suffering or who's living to pay just the paycheck, and these guys are stealing people's hard earned money. You know, it's kind of messed up," said Figueroa.
