Cyber Risks · Krebs on Security

Global Payments Breach Fueled Prepaid Card Fraud

Summary: Debit card accounts stolen in a break-in at Atlanta-based processor Global Payments surfaced in fraud at Safeway and Vons stores, where thieves encoded stolen card data onto low-value prepaid cards and used them to buy higher-value prepaid cards, then electronics. Union Savings Bank traced roughly a dozen fraudulent cards to a school cafeteria that was a Global Payments customer, alerted Visa, and learned about 1,000 of its debit accounts were compromised, with losses of about $75,000 and close to $10,000 spent reissuing cards.

What's compelling: Global Payments says only Track 2 data was taken and fewer than 1.5 million accounts were stolen, while some in the industry believe more than 7 million were compromised and the card brands now date the breach window to at least early June 2011 - and Track 2 alone was enough to mint working counterfeit cards.

Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗

Topics
Data Breaches
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