Feds crack down on card skimmers across South Florida in multi-agency operation

Federal agents are cracking down on credit card skimmers, creating a task force that will spend two days going to businesses all over South Florida, in what feds call an “outreach” operation to educate people on the prevalence of card skimmers and check their equipment for the skimmers.

The initiative is led by the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in collaboration with local law enforcement agencies including the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office and the police departments of Miami Beach, the City of Miami, Doral, Hialeah and others.

Special agents alongside local law enforcement spent their rainy Wednesday going to businesses all over South Florida, including gas stations, grocery stores and retail stores.

On Wednesday, agents visited 327 businesses, examined 1,891 point of service terminals, 200 ATMs and 490 gas pumps, preventing $4.2 million in potential losses, they say. They found four skimmers, including one at a gas pump in Doral.

Nearly 30 teams, comprised of the different agencies, were formed for this operation.

By the end of the operation on Thursday, a total of 10 skimmers were found after nearly 600 businesses were visited, with $10.4 million in potential losses prevented, agents say.

Agents came equipped with handheld detectors called “Skim Busters” that allow them to scan equipment for skimmers without having to pull apart the machine.

The skimmer found at the Doral gas station was confirmed by the skim buster when it flashed red, with a special agent pulling it out with some tweezers.

EBT scammers

“EBT cards, right now are, are perhaps the biggest area that’s being attacked by fraudsters,” said Mark Haskins, Branch Chief for special investigations with USDA at the Miami Secret Service headquarters in Medley.

These cards, used by low-income families to access food benefits, are increasingly being cloned, skimmed and drained, feds say.

Haskins said he prefers to use cash but will grab a credit card over a debit card.

“At least my credit cards are secure, EBT is not”, Haskins said. “If somebody loses their EBT funds, they lose, they’re done. An EBT client can’t eat that week because of it.”

People are exploiting the lack of security on EBT cards, which still rely on magnetic stripes rather than encrypted chip technology, explained Rafael Barros, Special Agent in charge of the Miami Field Office.

“Embedded microchips secure customer payments far better than magnetic stripes,” the FBI wrote in a guide on how to combat skimming. “The lack of chips on benefits cards make it far easier for bad actors to compromise them and “cash out.”

Evolving technology

According to Haskins, criminal operations now use bots, brute-force software, machine learning and even AI to gather and exploit card data. The skimmers themselves — often tiny, discreet devices — can be installed in seconds on unsuspecting point-of-sale terminals, typically in high-traffic areas where the volume of transactions offers the highest yield.

“It’s all about traffic,” Haskins said. They want a lot of people coming in, more people, more cards…the more money they can steal.”

Agents say that these skimmers can be put on in a fraction of a second, with many local businesses and employees being unaware.

Though there are instances of the fraud being an inside job.

Haskins referred to a 2016 case in which a married couple in Hialeah who operated a food stand business — Opa-locka Fruit and Produce Market — fraudulently redeemed over $2.4 million in food stamp benefits by exchanging EBT funds for cash.

“I think it’s gotten a lot bigger since the Opa-locka case,” Haskins said.

With criminals moving faster than ever — and with high-tech tools at their disposal — the feds say educating store owners and the public is now their best defense.

“Going out there and educating the public is important,” Barros said.

This story was originally published July 23, 2025 at 3:47 PM.