WASHINGTON — Supermarket chain Giant Food announced Tuesday that an illegal scanning device was found at the checkout of one of its stores in D.C. and that customers’ personal and financial information may have been stolen.
The illegal device was found at one self-checkout point at its store at 1345 Park Road, NW, Giant said in a statement to customers. The company said the device was discovered March 5 during what Giant called "routine security procedures."
Giant didn’t indicate how long the device had been there.
The supermarket chain said it has confirmed that no other store checkout points across any of its stores in the D.C. area have been compromised. The company has notified law enforcement and engaged forensic experts to analyze the device.
"Based on our investigation, at this time, we have no evidence that any of the information has been misused as a result of this issue," Bob Bennett, vice president of Giant Food operations said in a statement. "However, out of an abundance of caution, we are notifying our customers."
The device was installed on one PIN pad and was capable of capturing data from payment card chips, but not from magnetic stripes, Giant said.
The personal information found on the device includes names, payment account numbers, and also expiration dates for a limited number of customers.
The company said it has seen no evidence that any of the information has been misused. Giant said that they have notified the potentially affected shoppers that the company was able to identify.
“Since this incident occurred, we have further increased monitoring of all registers at Giant Food stores, including additional detection device tools, and will continue to be extra vigilant to protect customers,” Bennett said.
Giant is advising customers who may have been affected to monitor their account statements and their free credit reports.