ATLANTA — When you swipe your card, sometimes it opens the door for thieves to swipe your money.

Hoping to stop that, the United States Secret Service, United States Department of Agriculture, and other law enforcement agencies fanned out to crack down on card skimmers stealing bucks and benefits across Georgia.

Atlanta Field Office Deputy Special Agent in Charge Rob Donovan says the USSS operation focused on nearly 550 businesses. From gas stations to ATMs, the goal was to find and remove the illegal keypads which steal and clone users’ data from EBT, credit, and debit cards.

Donovan says they have seen an uptick in the use of these skimmers, with millions of dollars lost in Georgia every year and billions nationwide. He tells WSB it’s organized crime. And while the devices used to be somewhat obvious, he says they have gotten more sophisticated and harder to spot—although a closer look reveals clues.

That level of some sophistication also makes it easier for thieves to glue them onto keypads and payment terminals right under employees’ noses—and fast.

“It just takes a few seconds. They’ll distract an employee, and install it,“ says Donovan.

Donovan says telltale signs include a backlight coming from underneath a keypad instead of behind it, as the keys should be lit up; signs of scratches on, or wiggling of, the keypad; or glue which has seeped out of the sides from a slapdash installation.

The DSAIC says they found fewer skimmers able to handle the technology of chip cards or tap-to-pay, so those are more secure ways of checking out.

This month’s operation, he says, is a success. They uncovered dozens of the skimmers in metro Atlanta, and eight in Columbus.

“We went to 542 businesses, removed 41 skimming devices, which saves an estimated $41.6M in financial fraud,” Donovan says.

It’s a stunning number, as the DSAIC confirms one skimmer brings in an average of $1 million in transactions after its installation, “bleeding” people’s accounts dry. Donovan calls it a highly-organized scheme.

He hopes the success of this operation sends a message that this fraud “won’t be tolerated” to the transnational gangs—likely in Eastern Europe—believed to be behind this.

He says on subsequent operations when the number of skimmers is fewer, they know that message is getting across.

The seized skimmers are in a Secret Service lab for analysis, where Donovan says they will likely be tied to ongoing investigations.