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
