If you read my post from the other day called “Way to start Friday” you would have read how our credit cards have been stopped after the Federal Police advised Westpac that our cards had been compromised in some way. Looks like this is the related news story from the Syndey Morning Herald advising that a lot of customers and other banks have been hit as well.
Police warn of new card fraud scam
Credit card and EFTPOS card holders have been targeted in a new ”skimming” fraud scam.
NSW Police have alerted banks and other financial institutions that they have formed Strike Force Wigg to investigate the use of skimming devices, which allow card data to be covertly captured then used to withdraw funds from a victim’s account.
Commonwealth Bank spokesman Steve Batten confirmed financial institutions had been advised of a security issue on Friday but he had not been told if his bank’s customers were affected.
”We will monitor potentially compromised accounts and contact customers to change their PIN,” he said. ”If this is not done in 24 hours, we reduce the amount that can be withdrawn from an account.”
Card users are advised to check account statements regularly and report any suspicious transactions.
You do really hope Australia starts to get up todate with the latest security for cards, we have the chips so lets start using them and get ride of the magnetic strip altogether.