Scammers Stole $38,000 From 80 Walmart Shoppers
Next time you tap your card at a self-checkout machine, take a closer look at the reader first.
Four people have been charged in connection with a card skimming operation at a Walmart in Erie, Pennsylvania, that ran through 2024 and 2025. Eighty shoppers reported money missing. The total stolen came to at least $38,000. Most of the victims were hit through their EBT cards — the government benefit cards used for food assistance — which are specifically targeted by skimmers because they don't have microchips.
Investigators found two separate skimming devices — one in December 2024 and another in April 2025. Store surveillance footage helped identify the suspects. In at least one instance, the footage showed someone peeling off the red security strip on a self-checkout terminal — the strip that's supposed to alert employees if a machine has been tampered with. They just removed it and put their device in.
Three of the four suspects — Remus Rosu, 30, Louisa Unguru, 25, and Cosmin L. Cretu, 28 — were arrested in Orchard Park, New York in September 2025. A fourth suspect, Constantin P. Giurebe, is believed to be somewhere in the Chicago area. All four face felony counts of using a device to obtain encoded information and access device fraud, plus several misdemeanor charges.
How Skimmers Actually Work
Card skimmers are small devices that attach to payment terminals and silently capture everything — card number, expiration date, and PIN — when someone swipes or inserts their card. The stolen data gets used to create fake payment cards that can then be used to drain accounts.
Most of the time you can't see them. They're attached to internal wiring or slipped over the card reader so smoothly that nothing looks out of place. EBT cards are especially vulnerable because they still rely on magnetic strips rather than chips — and magnetic strip data is much easier to steal and clone than chip data.
This Is Getting Worse Nationwide
The Erie case isn't an isolated incident. In February a man in Baltimore was arrested for putting skimmers at multiple 7-Eleven locations across Maryland. In March a man and woman were caught in Alabama for hitting Family Dollar stores in the Mobile area.
The numbers behind all of this are genuinely alarming. Analytics company FICO found that skimming scams surged 90% in 2025, with more than 3,500 financial institutions dealing with skimming-related compromises last year alone. That's not a niche crime anymore — it's a full-blown epidemic hitting regular people at the places they shop every week.
What You Can Do
Before you swipe or insert anywhere, give the card reader a quick physical check. If it wobbles, looks scratched, feels loose, or has anything stuck to it — don't use it. When you enter your PIN cover the keypad completely with your other hand. Hidden cameras recording PIN entries are part of the same scam package as the skimmer itself.
Use chip-enabled cards whenever possible. Check your bank account regularly for anything that looks off. And if you use EBT cards specifically — which are the primary target here because of the lack of chip technology — be extra cautious at self-checkout terminals.
If something feels wrong call your bank or financial institution immediately. The sooner you report it, the better your chances of recovering the money.
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