Walmart shoppers have been issued a major warning after a scam targeting them resulted in thousands of Walmart customers having their identities and credit card information stolen.

A group of criminal thugs rigged Walmart checkout lines with credit card skimmers, which are small electronic devices that get placed on top of a credit card reader. Every time a customer swipes their card, the skimmer steals the information off of the credit card’s magnetic strip.

The first skimmer was found at a Walmart store in Fort Wright, Kentucky. The thieves, who have not been caught and may be store employees, loaded the device onto the self-checkout machine to scam customers. The device was not found for a week, and during that time, thousands of customers had their personal information stolen.

“To go inside a store like Walmart that has a lot of surveillance equipment and install a skimmer is pretty bold,” Fort Wright police chief Dan Kreinest said.

After combing through hours of security footage, police think they have found some suspects. They’ve released the grainy footage to the public to try and identify the perpetrators.

“These folks did not park at the Walmart,” Kreinest said. “They actually parked off-site, so we’re pretty certain that’s who we’re looking for.”

Since then, this same scam has happened at Walmarts in places like Fredericksburg, Virginia. Things eventually got so bad that Walmart’s senior manager of communications Erica Jones had to release a statement about the incidents.

“First and foremost, we have zero tolerance for any crime against our customers, our associates or our company. As soon as we heard about the possible fraudulent activity in these stores, we took action to protect our customers,” she said. “We are working with law enforcement authorities to investigate this activity and are taking additional steps to help ensure that our customers’ transactions are safe, including increasing store inspections.”

It’s sad that Walmart customers are being targeted in such a despicable way. SHARE this story so we can spread the word about this to your family and friends!