At least 20,000 debit cards from America First Credit Union were breached in a security breach, but affected customers didn’t know about it until Wednesday afternoon.
Two weeks ago, 12 of the bank’s employees were alerted to suspicious activity. The bank investigated and discovered the security breach.
“There were multiple occurrences. We were on the early end of this one,” America First executive vice president and chief financial officer Rex Rollo said.
The employees discovered two or three odd transactions on each of at least 20,000 debit cards.
The credit union says a skimming device was used to steal data from the cards.
Jeff Francom, a customer, was notified via email during a business meeting. He said his billing information, PIN and card numbers of the affected cards were listed in the email.
“It just happened late this afternoon. I actually stood up and left my meeting,” Francom said.
He thought it was a scam and called the credit union. He then learned the email was not a drill.
One thing the letter does not state is who the retailer is who experienced the breach or where the retailer is located. Francom said as far as he knows, the information could have been stolen any time between last October and February. But it’s valuable information that Francom wants to know, for his own financial security.
“The more information we have as consumers, the better protection we can provide for ourselves,” Francom said.
But America First disagrees.
“It doesn’t matter for the consumer to know who the retailer was because it’s past history,” Rollo said.
America First said it notified VISA, which has also launched its own investigation. Until VISA finishes its work, thousands of customers won’t know where or when their information was stolen.
All compromised cardholders will receive a new debit card and PIN in the mail within a few weeks, according to the credit union. Current debit cards will still function as credit cards, and America First says it will monitor all transactions on affected accounts.