sloth unleashed

Criminals have tampered with the credit and debit card readers at self-checkout lanes in more than 20 supermarkets operated by a California chain, allowing them to steal money from shoppers who used the compromised machines. The chain, Lucky Supermarkets, which is owned by Save Mart, is now inspecting the rest of its 234 stores in northern California and northern Nevada and urging customers who used self-checkout lanes to close their bank and credit card accounts.

Lucky Supermarkets issued a consumer advisory Monday listing the stores confirmed to have been affected, while also saying, “There have been approximately 80 employee and customer reports of either compromised account data or attempts to access account data, with the majority coming over this past weekend. … We strongly recommend our customers who used a self check-out lane in the affected stores contact their financial institution to close existing accounts and seek further advice. We continue to work with local, state, and federal law enforcement to find those responsible…”