Connecticut state leaders and retailers are battling an increase in tech-savvy thefts that target anyone with a cash, credit or government benefits card, including low income families who rely on monthly food aid, officials said Wednesday.

The state and retailers are trying to keep up with the elusive suspects and hold them accountable amid an uptick in skimming thefts over the past six months, Gov. Ned Lamont and other state and law enforcement officials said in front of a Stop & Shop supermarket in New Britain.

"Our state agencies are working together, along with our towns and cities, local police departments and the federal government to combat this issue and keep us safe," Lamont said. "But it will require all of us remaining vigilant, learning the signs of a skimming device, sharing that information with our friends and family and reporting any incidents to the police to bring this scam to an end."

Skimmers are electronic devices planted on or inside ATMs, point-of-sale terminals and fuel pumps to filch consumers' credit, debit, and EBT card data and any associated PIN entries. Crooks use the data to create fake payment cards and make unauthorized purchases or to drain victims' accounts.

An uptick in skimming has been reported around the nation. In Connecticut, devices have been found at grocery and convenience stores around the state, most recently at a 7-Eleven in Montville and Big Y supermarkets in Plainville and Naugatuck.

So far in the 2023-24 federal fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, about $3.7 million has been stolen from Connecticut residents who use EBT cards for Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program benefits, state Social Services Commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves said.

EBT card holders in the state have filed about 7,000 complaints after their accounts were wiped out, thefts that state leaders called "heartbreaking" and "inhuman." The agency has been working to raise awareness, and in the past two months, benefits thefts have dropped by 48 percent, Reeves said.

About 300,000 Connecticut residents hold EBT cards to receive SNAP benefits. Thieves target the federally funded aid, which ranges from $86 to $400 a month, around the beginning of the month when funding reloads, the state's social services spokesperson Jalmar De Dios said. Replacing the lost benefits can take weeks.

"We know that SNAP benefits, which are delivered to recipients on EBT cards, are critical to those who receive them, and we are working hard to educate people about how to prevent theft and fraud by changing their PIN on a monthly basis," Reeves said. "We have been using social media, text messaging, and community meetings to get the word out, but the criminals are working just as hard."

Consumer Protection Commissioner Bryan T. Cafferelli also encouraged people to learn the signs, monitor their accounts and report any skimming devices or fraud to police.

Reports can also be made to the Department of Consumer Protection by filing a complaint at ct.gov/DCP.

"We see scams and fraud all the time, but targeting hardworking Connecticut families at the grocery store is one of the most shameful," Consumer Protection Commissioner Bryan T. Cafferelli said.

Investigators suspect some skimming thieves are Eastern European citizens who recruit American citizens, typically drug addicts, as mules to carry out the schemes, state police spokesperson Sgt. Luke Davis said. In some cases, the devices are connected with Bluetooth, so the suspects can continue collecting information as long as the devices remain cloaked.

Retail stores are fighting back with regular inspections of check-out terminals to spot devices, Connecticut Food Association President Wayne Pesce said. In the past four to five weeks, 12 to 15 skimming attempts were uncovered before any accounts were affected, Pesce said. He said retailers first noticed an increase in the thefts late last year around the holidays.

FICO, the credit score and data analytics company, reported a 96 percent increase in compromised debit cards due to skimming from 2022-23, with 315,000 cards and 3,500 unique financial institutions affected. Most targeted devices were non-bank ATMs, including free-standing machines at convenience stores, but the number of affected bank ATMs was up 90 percent from the previous year, FICO Vice President Debbie Cobb wrote in March.

Skimming costs banks and consumers about $1 billion each year, according to the FBI. Thieves plant small electronic devices that read card information, often along with tiny cameras that capture a customer's key strokes while entering a PIN. The data, which can be wirelessly transferred, is then used to create cloned cards and make unauthorized purchases and to pilfer victims' accounts.

In addition to skimming, which records a card's magnetic stripe, the Connecticut Better Business Bureau is warning consumers of a new scam tactic that targets credit card chips. Called "shimming," the BBB says scammers insert a shim — a paper-thin, card-sized device with an embedded microchip and storage — into the slot where the chip side of a credit card or debit card is placed. When someone inserts their card to pay at a gas pump, ATM or business, the shim copies and saves the payment information.

Consumers are encouraged to always be on the lookout for the presence of rip-off devices at the point of card transactions. Often, skimming devices are overlaid on top of legitimate card readers.

Here are some tips to do before using a credit, debit, or EBT card:

— Look at the card reading device to see if something looks off or abnormal, such as sticky keys, an added bulk, or mismatched colors.

— Wiggle the device to make sure it is intact.

— Make sure the card slot doesn't look different or heavier than usual, and the components aren't loose or altered.

— Cover the keypad when entering a PIN number and change it frequently.

— Use contactless payments instead of the magnetic strip when possible