Burned By Aldis

[Purseval]

We stopped at one of the 2 local Aldis we frequent and asked if they had a list of stores where debit card numbers had been stolen. There was no notice posted anywhere and the cashier said that they hadn't been told anything, though she did know about the thefts. So Aldi isn't being of much help at this time.

 

[JB2K]

This is obviously a "new" way to skim money from unsuspecting consumers.

As best I recall, Aldi stores use the standard "swipe" terminal w/built-in keypad, which sits in plain sight of the cashier.

Which makes this conspiracy theorist wonder...

Was it some sort of "inside" job by the cashiers that crossed state lines from Atlanta all the way to Chicagoland?

Think about it -- if that was your register, you would maintain some degree of vigilance to make sure nothing out of the ordinary was going-on with the equipment you are responsible for...

If a "skimming", or other recording device was attached to the terminal (much like the ones attached to the card readers on gas pumps), it's hard for me to fathom it would take this long to finally catch-on (on Aldi's part) -- obviously, they (Aldi) don't do a very good job of "policing" their checklanes after the store closes for the day.

It would be interesting to get some insights from any Aldi employees, out there (though the corporate folks have probably already advised them not to speak on the matter).

 

[scboyd]

JB2K,
I don't know about the situation at Aldi but I can tell you about a situation that happened at a large chain in canada. The store managers of this chain were the one that inadvertently changed out their terminals when they had received "new" terminals shipped through UPS. In actuality they were "thieving" terminals sent by the criminals.... Still worked accordingly except that they were also sending the criminals all of the info.... It was quite an elaborate scheme they set up and everything looked legit. And the criminals were smart enough to hold off using the collected info for 9 months so they could collect enormous amounts of info.
So no conspiracy theory.... just some poor store managers that got scammed and taken advantage of...

 

[mhsjax]

Sorry you had such a bad experience. That would of killed us if done at a critical moment during the month. I use my debit card quite a bit, but as a credit card so I never put a pin # in, except at the bank teller machine of course. I use cash at aldi's because I guess I never trusted any of those little machines having my pin #.

Hope others avoid that trap.

Thanks for the heads up, another reason to continue to use cash at Aldi.

Unfortunately, not using a PIN doesn't always help. OUr cards were scanned , just as the OP explained. They scanned our Debit card and our Credit card. It was a crime ring down in Miami at the time. They hit both debit and credit cards for about $2000.00 each. I actually got my debit card resolved quicker than my credit card.

I am beginning to think it is best to use cash everywhere, but then you run the risk of someone steeling your purse or wallet. You just can't win these days.

 

[Swimalie]

It can happen with a credit card, a debit card, a student loan, or an account at a local credit union. Thieves burned you. I'm sure Aldi corporate didn't set out to hurt their customers.

But with a credit card or other types of fraud, your money isn't taken immediately and then you have to get it back. The problem with debit cards is that they money is taken out of the account right away and for some people, it can mean all their money is taken. Then they are out of all their spending money. This is why debit cards are not good ideas to use. Either use cash or credit cards.

 

[Green Tea]

Thieves could hack your bank account and empty the checking account whether you have a debit card or not. Nothing is immune from scams.

It is certainly anyone's right to elect to not use a debit card, but they shouldn't say a store burned them. A thief burned them.

When I had an issue with credit card fraud, it was actually the store, not an outside scammer. It was a credit card, but could have been a debit. Or I could have written a check somewhere and a thief lifted the number and created fake checks. It is unfortunately the world today.