Inside the Secret Service hunt for skimmers as outdated SNAP cards let thieves steal millions

Inside a suburban Maryland gas station, the Secret Service’s Vincent Porter runs his fingers over a card reader in front of a clerk, hunting for signs that the terminal has been hijacked by thieves.

The financial analyst is feeling for the plastic overlay of a skimmer, an electronic device used to exploit the half-century-old card technology still used to deliver benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps over 41 million Americans pay for food each month.

For more than a year, Secret Service employees have been going shop-to-shop working in one of the oddest fronts against transnational crime — and one that would be greatly reduced if governments would update benefit cards to include chip technology.

Read more at NextGov/FCW