ATLANTA — The U.S. Secret Service announced Wednesday that it had conducted 22 Electronic Benefits Transfer fraud and ATM skimming operations across the country over 2025, including two that were in the metro Atlanta area.
The agency, known mainly for protecting the President of The United States, is also a financial law enforcement agency.
Channel 2 Action News reported on the operations undertaken in the Atlanta area and across Georgia in August and October.
Now, the federal agency is revealing new details about the operations.
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Through the 22 operations, USSS said agents visited more than 9,000 businesses and removed 411 illegal skimming devices.
As part of that effort, agents inspected almost 60,000 point-of-sale terminals, gas pumps and ATMs.
Officials said those actions, in partnership with local agencies, helped prevent an estimated potential loss of more than $428.1 million.
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The Secret Service said their teams also distributed educational materials about EBT fraud and card skimming to help businesses identify when illegal skimming devices were in their point-of-sale terminals, gas pumps and ATMs.
“The U.S. Secret Service is committed to combatting EBT fraud and credit card skimming throughout the country. These proactive operations are aimed at finding and removing devices before criminals can recover the stolen card numbers they contain,” Kyo Dolan, Assistant Director for the U.S. Secret Service’s Office of Field Operations, said in a statement.
In the operations in Georgia, USSS previously told Channel 2 Action News that they’d visited 542 business and performed 3,408 inspections during their August operation in the metro Atlanta area.
During that action, the agencies involved removed 41 skimming devices were recovered, helping prevent an estimated $43.7 million in potential financial losses.
Then, in October, the Secret Service said investigators and agents checked 76 businesses, 429 gas pumps, 47 ATMs and approximately 200 point-of-sale terminals for skimming devices.
Unlike the August 2025 activities, no skimming devices were found during the operation in Barrow County in October, officials said.
The operations come as USSS says there’s been a nationwide increase in skimming activity, particularly targeting EBT cards and harming the most vulnerable Americans.
The Secret Service said last year’s actions to protect Americans from EBT fraud and card skimmers aren’t an outlier or a one-time deal.
“These operations are only the start. We are working closely with our local, state, federal and international law enforcement partners to investigate and dismantle the criminal organizations that perpetrate these crimes,” Dolan said.
Here’s how federal agents say you can protect yourself from fraud and theft:
- Inspect ATMs, point-of-sale terminals and other card readers. Look for anything loose, crooked, damaged, or scratched. Do not use a card reader if anything appears unusual.
- Whenever possible, use tap-to-pay technology or use debit and credit cards with chip technology.
- If using a debit card at a gas station, run it as a credit card to avoid entering a PIN number.
- Use your hand to hide your PIN to block scammers who may be using tiny pinhole cameras above the keypad area to record entries.
- Use ATMs in a well-lit, indoor location, which are less vulnerable targets.
- Be alert for skimming devices in tourist areas, which are popular targets.
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