KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Food City said Friday that card skimmers were found at three grocery store locations recently — Kodak, Gatlinburg and Mechanicsville. The devices are usually attached to regular scanners in stores by thieves and are used to steal credit and debit card information.
After finding one unauthorized device at each of the locations, Food City said in a statement that it examined the more than 2,500 card readers across the company and did not find fraudulent activity. It also said it increased the number of times they inspect card readers each day.
In a statement, Food City also said suspects who may have attached the devices were identified in video surveillance footage. The grocery store said when they returned to the store to retrieve data from the devices, they were intercepted by the stores' security departments and were later taken into custody by law enforcement.
Food City said they may have targeted other retailers in the Knoxville area.
The store also said around 146 transactions may have been affected, but also said the devices appeared to only be capable of collecting card numbers and PINs from swiped cards. It said no names appear to have been collected and did not impact transactions involving tap-to-pay or chip reader payments.
Food City also said no self-checkout areas or transactions appeared to have been impacted.
Food City said customers who swiped cards at the Gatlinburg and Mechanicsville locations between April 9 and April 14, or at the Kodak location between April 9 and April 17, should review their bank and credit card statements and monitor credit reports in the coming days to make sure their information was not stolen.