SPOKANE - Secret Service in eastern Washington is investigating a rash of fraudulent credit and debit card purchases being made at grocery stores.

The cases are linked to a group of retail grocery stores associated with URM Stores Inc. Kevin Miller, with the Secret Service office in Spokane, would not go into details but confirmed an investigation is ongoing to find where the incidents of fraud are occurring.

URM Stores was recently advised by law enforcement officials and a financial institution that it may have been the target of a criminal cyber attack against their payment processing system, CEO Ray Sprinkle said.

Sprinkle confirmed there have been signs of an attack that is similar to those being reported at other grocery stores.

"We believe that the attack is targeting data found in the magnetic stripe on the back of credit and debit cards," Sprinkle wrote in a release. "This information is typically used to make counterfeit cards."

Stores connected to URM include Lep-re-kon Harvest Foods in Mattawa and Royal City Harvest Foods. However, management at both report that no fraud has occurred connected to them.

"URM is doing everything it can to make sure our customers are protected," Royal City's Harvest Foods' Leslie Fanning said. "They're working around the clock, including Thanksgiving."

Fanning noted URM was proactive in this matter. She said it announced there was a problem before it was fixed so that customers would practice diligence with their cards.

"Customers should always be diligent with their cards," she said.

URM has created a dedicated call center for customers who have questions about fraudulent purchases or want to know what steps to take to protect themselves.

"We encourage individuals to review and monitor bank and credit card statements for evidence of unauthorized transactions and report any suspected fraud or possible identity theft incidents to their bank or credit card company," Sprinkle said.

The call center can be reached at 877-237-7408, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Friday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Information can also be found online at www.urmstores.com.

Mike and Joe Montemayor, owners of Lep-re-kon Harvest Foods, are taking every step they can to prevent any such incidents. Notices have been posted to inform customers of the investigation.

Lep-re-kon Harvest Foods stopped accepting debit and credit cards temporarily, shutting down the system. The stores are now accepting credit cards using a secondary option not connected to the payment system involved in the investigation.

Joe Montemayor urges everyone, not just customers, to monitor activity on credit and debit cards.

Correction: In a Nov. 26 story in the Columbia Basin Herald titled "Secret Service looks into fraud credit, debit card purchases," a photo caption and sub headline incorrectly said there had been reports of credit and debit card fraud reported at the Royal City Harvest Foods store. Instead, the 20 reports were made in the Quincy area, not necessarily connected to any particular store, according to Quincy police officials. The body of the article was correct.

We apologize for the errors and any hardship this may have caused.