Safeway: Credit card skimmers found at Bay Area stores

MENLO PARK, Calif. (KTVU) - There's a warning for Safeway shoppers who use credit or debit cards at the stores.

Security expert Brian Krebs, who reports on cybercrime and security, reports an investigation is now underway into a sophisticated skimming scam targeting some shoppers.

Krebs says that financial institutions are looking into why so many Safeway customers in California and Colorado had their debit cards drained of cash after shopping there.

The blog is reporting stores in Menlo Park and Castro Valley may have been hit.

But in a statement to KTVU today, Safeway said Brian Krebs report was inaccurate. But store officials acknowledged that skimmers were found at stores at 7499 Dublin Blvd. in Dublin and at 710 Bancroft Road in Walnut Creek.

"Today’s online story regarding skimmers at Safeway stores does not reflect that these rare discoveries were made during our own routine inspections, nor does it convey that these are isolated incidents," Safeway's statement says.

"It is important for customers to know that no credit or debit card data was compromised" by the skimming devices found at the two stores, officials said.

"No skimmers have been discovered since that time," Safeway said. "Like all responsible business owners, our store teams routinely inspect all point of sale devices and discovered the two skimmers during these inspections."

A skimmer is a device that a thief installs between the keypad and electronics underneath. It captures pin numbers when people swipe.

Krebs says the fraud may go back to cards being used there since September.