Mastercard account numbers compromised

[Lel]

I received an email notification for my B of A World Mastercard statement.  However, the account number was different from what actually appears on my card.  Among the charges listed on the statement, there is a note: "trans from xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx" with my old account number.

I called B of A, and was told that they received notification from Mastercard that some account numbers had been compromised in some way.  The CSR didn't have any further details, but she said that it didn't necessarily mean that my account was specifically affected, but rather an entire batch was determined to be at risk and so account number changes were recommended for a whole bunch of cardholders.  My replacement card is on its way.

I don't recall seeing any news reports about any recent security breach, but I suppose it could have been a small-scale thing that my card just happened to fall into.  I'm not a gamer so I'm not affected by the Playstation breach.  I do shop at Michael's pretty frequently.  I thought that only debit cards were at risk from their fiasco, but maybe Mastercard is being cautious and is recommending changes to any card that was used at Michael's.

[Uborrow-Upay]

Could be Michael's. Or it could be a housekeeping situation.

My bet is that a backup disk went missing in transit somehow, and has not yet been accounted for.  Something along those lines usually doesn't make the news.

The good thing is, you're covered, no matter what.  And it's even better when they tell you about it, rather than you calling them to try to explain, "I never made those charges!"

 Edit to add:  Now that I think of it, a local restaurant a while back had a dishonest employee skimming card numbers.  I think that the number of chargebacks triggered an investigation.  Probably anyone using cards in that place would have had their card numbers reissued.  That would make sense, too.

[Lel]

The clot thickens.....

I just received a Score Watch alert.  In addition to letting me know that my score is now 809 , it indicates that this credit card has been reported lost or stolen.

I called the credit card company again, and was transferred to their fraud department.  Unfortunately, they weren't able to provide any clarity on this issue, alternately saying that there was a third party compromise or that the card was reported as stolen or improperly used.  I asked if this was something specific to my account or whether it was a general precaution in response to a security breach at some retailer, but they weren't able to answer that question.

They told me that the card had been shut down.  But both my wife and I have been using it without problem the last few days.  However, none of the charges after Sunday (5/22) are listed as pending on my account when I check it online

Interestingly, the last charge that appears on my account is Michaels.  But this is two weeks after their security breach was announced, and this was the day after they supposedly sent out the new card.  So this it surely just a coincidence.

The only other thing that might have raised a red flag was that I used this card at a sports bar for the first time about a week before the account was reported stolen.  There was a $10 charge at a nearby bar on 5/13 that posted on 5/18.  But the account didn't get flagged until 3 days after posting.

[Uborrow-Upay]

Major congrats on that 809, Lel!  Awesome!!

As to the card, I don't believe you'll ever find out for sure what happened.  As you pointed out in your original post, it may very well have been a batch of cards at risk (or just perceived to be at risk) for any number of reasons.  It doesn't sound like your account was singled out.

Interesting about the lost/stolen reporting, though. 

Anyways, congrats again on that 809! 

[Lel]

I sent a message to BofA customer service last night, and just got this reply:

"Allow us to inform you that we have reviewed our records and they show that some credit card information for your Bank of America account may have been compromised at a third party location. Your credit card number may have been part of this occurrence. At Bank of America, we take your privacy very seriously. To ensure your privacy is protected to the best of our ability, Bank of America has taken the following steps:

- We have reviewed your credit card account activity and see no evidence that your account has been misused in any way. We will continue to monitor activity on your Bank of America account, and if we detect suspicious transactions, we will notify you. Please note that due to the account status, the old number may no longer be accessed online and the transactions may not be viewed.

-As a measure of added security, we have closed your current account and issued you a new account number and mailed a new credit card. It will arrive in a separate mailing in approximately seven to ten business days.

- Any remaining balance and payments were transferred to your new Bank of America account number, leaving only one valid account."

[Anonymous]

my paypal mc debit card had unauthorized charges 5000 miles from where i live. someone must been making fake credit cards.

[chan85]

I work for BoA Fraud and this is standard response. They do not tell us who the merchant was because we could potentially be liable for the destruction of a company of we said "oh yeah walmart was the place where the security breach occured" and customers took their business elsewhere, opening us to a lawsuit.

Only when it is a large scale breach does it become public information, like the Micheal's incident or the TJMaxx scame that happened a few years ago if you recall. We often receive information about smaller scale mass compromises and the bank doesn't close the accounts but we monitor them more closely for a few months to be sure nothing happens. I wouldn't stress too much about it, you will likely never figure it out lol and wil have wasted countless hours retracing your credit card use and recalling how some cashier looked "fishy" at that place you went to that one time.

The card is closed and a new number is generated and mailed out. Your old card works for about 2-3 weeks while you are waiting to get your new one, and then allows you time to transfer over any autobillers, so thats why your old card is still working.

[Uborrow-Upay]

+1