Hannaford fraud linked to pin transactions

A Service Credit Union representative in Portsmouth, NH said today that it has received a list of 5,500 Visa credit and debit card numbers compromised in the Hannafords data breach. The disclosure came as I called to inquire about my own Visa card.

SCU's analysis of the compromised card data shows that the vast majority of the affected cards numbers were used in pin-based transactions. That is, debit cards or Visa debit cards where the user chose "debit" and entered a pin number rather than selecting "credit" to complete the transaction.

That's not great news for consumers, since with credit cards the user is only responsible for the first $50 in fraudulent transactions. With debit cards there is no such guarantee. Also, the money comes right out of your checking account, which means a large fraudulent withdrawal could make a hell of a mess of all the checks and electronic payments you have in process.

I have a credit card with SCU. It wasn't on the list. Only a very small number of credit cards were, the rep said.

Earlier in the day a coworker of my wife's was contacted by the credit union to let him know that his account had been the target of fradulent transactions relating to the Hannaford's situation and that his card had been blocked.

I asked the card services representative about that. "We haven't seen a lot of fraud so far," he said. But the credit union isn't taking any chances: It is in the process of blocking all 5,500 card numbers and issuing new cards to those members - just in case.

My other bank, Savings Bank of Walpole, in Keene, NH, just received the compromised numbers and is still reviewing them. A representative in deposit operations says that they also plan to bite the bullet and block every card on the list rather than waiting to see if fraudulent activity occurs.

It costs a bank about $15 per card on average to block a card and issue a new one. Kudos to them. For 5,500 cards that comes about $82,000.

It's nice to know that my banks (both local institutions) are doing the right thing.

Is yours? This would be a good time to ask.