WRAP -Aust banks checking 127,000 credit card accounts for fraud
AAP News
11:38:020 21/06/2005
SYDNEY, June 21 AAP - Australian banks are checking the accounts
of 127,000 credit card holders to see if they have been affected by
a massive security breach in the United States.
However, the banks say most victims of the credit card scam have
already been identified and were issued with replacement cards
earlier in the year.
About 50,000 MasterCard holders and 77,000 Visa card holders in
Australia are among the 40 million credit card holders worldwide
that may have been exposed to a fraud scam linked to a card
processing company, Card Systems Solutions.
Australians who are potentially affected are those who made
transactions either while travelling in the United States or by
purchasing items from the US over the internet, and whose
transactions were processed through Card Systems around Christmas.
MasterCard's vice president of securities and risk Tim Morris
said Australian financial institutions were this week provided with
the account numbers of the potentially affected customers.
"These (customers) were potentially in danger at the time," Mr
Morris said.
But he said in reality, far fewer had actually had their account
details stolen.
Mr Morris defended the length of time taken for the scam to be
made public, saying it took that long for MasterCard to complete
its detailed forensic investigation into Card Systems.
"If you get it wrong, the results can be devastating," he said.
Australian banks say their fraud detection systems picked up the
problem last December and January, and the latest account details
from MasterCard will be used as a double check to ensure no
affected customers were missed.
The Commonwealth Bank said about 1,000 of its customers had been
issued with replacement cards earlier this year, while National
Australia Bank (NAB) had less than 500 customers, the ANZ had about
400 and Westpac's victims were also numbered in the hundreds.
An NAB spokesman said the bank's fraud detection technology had
picked up a number of unusual transactions on its customers'
MasterCards and Visa cards.
"We saw a pattern emerging," the NAB spokesman said.
"Our cards fraud team moved very swiftly to shut it down."
An ANZ spokesman said it was one of the biggest scams of its
kind.
"In terms of numbers of credit cards in the US it is quite large
and unusual," he said.
"Credit card fraud is an ongoing issue but it is unusual that
companies that are involved in the financial services industry have
these sorts of breaches."
The banks urged customers who believe they have unauthorised
transactions on their cards have been urged to contact their
financial institution, and have been assured they will not have to
bear the cost of the fraud.
AAP rca/eb/bwl
- Forums
- General
- aust banks checking credit card accounts for fraud
aust banks checking credit card accounts for fraud
Featured News
Featured News
The Watchlist
MGU
MAGNUM MINING AND EXPLORATION LIMITED
Neil Goodman, MD
Neil Goodman
MD
SPONSORED BY The Market Online