Credit card skimmers found at five area markets
Credit card skimmer devices used to steal financial information have been found at stores owned by Roche Bros. in five towns west of Boston in recent days, according to the supermarket chain.
The devices were found at Roche Bros. markets in Wellesley and Natick, a Brothers Marketplace in Weston, and at Sudbury Farms stores in Sudbury and Needham, the company said in a statement Tuesday.
The first discovery was made on Christmas Eve, when an employee at the Sudbury store “noticed an inconsistency in one of the self-checkout lanes,” Roche Bros. said.
Subsequently, two skimmers were found at that store, and Roche Bros. directed employees to examine all cash registers at each of its 20 supermarkets, leading to the discoveries in Wellesley, Natick, Weston, and Needham, according to the statement. The company has notified police.
Roche Bros. warned that customers who used the self-checkout lanes at those five stores on or before Christmas Eve could have been affected, though there have so far been no reports of credit card information being stolen.
The company’s chief executive, Kevin Barner, said Roche Bros. works to safeguard its customers’ private data.
“Roche Bros. has strong policies in place to protect against these types of incidents, including conducting multiple security checks daily on our registers,” Barner said in the statement. “Roche Bros. is committed to protecting the confidentiality and security of our customers’ information and are issuing a press release to try and reach affected and potentially affected customers who we are not able to specifically identify.”
Roche Bros. is headquartered in Mansfield and operates 14 stores under its own name in Acton, Boston, Bridgewater, Easton, Marshfield, Mashpee, Millis, Natick, Needham, Watertown, Wellesley, Westborough, and Westwood. The company also owns Brothers Marketplace supermarkets in Cambridge, Duxbury, Medfield, and Weston, as well as Sudbury Farms stores in Sudbury and Needham, according to the company website.
In early December, Chelsea police warned that a skimmer device was found at a Market Basket there. Market Basket said then that it had “not received information that any customer data has been compromised in this or the prior incident.”