International Harvester Employee Federal Credit Union of Springfield said it is not seeing unusual amounts of fraud.
Wright-Patt Credit Union’s 220,000 members traveling out of state are being asked to use their personal identification number, or PIN number, on all debit card purchases made outside of Ohio, which the credit union says is an “aggressive” proactive step against rising debit card fraud across the U.S. Wright-Patt did not disclose how many cases of fraud it has seen.
The Fairborn-based credit union, Ohio’s largest, says it’s seeing more fraudulent activity in certain states affecting “a very low number” of members, said Tracy Fors, spokeswoman for Wright-Patt Credit Union. She said the credit union a week ago notified members of the security precautions.
“We’ve identified an increase in fraud in debit card transactions taking place outside of the state of Ohio,” Fors said. “We’ve blocked and placed security rules on signature-based debit card transactions in certain states outside of Ohio.”
Wright-Patt Credit Union has a Springfield branch on North Bechtle Avenue and ATM locations in Clark County.
John Bowen, president and chief executive of River Valley Credit Union, said during the weekend it had a jump in reports of fraud on 15 to 20 accounts with larger dollar amounts than normal, as well as approximately 200 compromised cards.
A compromised card doesn’t always mean it has had fraud charges, but it can mean the processor or merchant where a card was used has been breached, Bowen said. The activity in recent days makes it “appear to me there’s some kind of criminal activity involved,” he said.
River Valley has seen fraudulent activity jump about 150 percent in the first quarter. “We typically don’t have this much in a year,” Bowen said.
This is affecting financial institutions nationwide, according to Wright-Patt.
The credit unions said their security has not been breached.
CODE Credit Union, with locations in Dayton and Englewood, has issued a fraud alert saying it is limiting non-PIN transactions in some areas. “A large number of fraudulent debit card transactions have been reported at various Walmart locations,” according to CODE’s fraud message on its website. “Signature-based transactions will not be approved in affected areas as necessary.”
Bowen said River Valley, of Miamisburg, acted Tuesday to limit non-PIN transactions out of state. He said the credit union, which has about 20,000 members, doesn’t know for sure what’s going on. “You need the PIN to authorize the transaction and for whatever reason these criminals aren’t able to obtain a PIN,” Bowen said.
It’s not clear if the fraud is related or limited to credit unions.
Customers can help protect themselves against fraud by making sure their financial institution has all their contact information up to date so the institutions can quickly verify purchases if need be.
Credit union contacts for fraud questions
Wright-Patt members with questions about their PIN can call (937) 912-7000 or (800) 762-0047 and ask a representative.
CODE Credit Union members can call (937) 222-8971.
River Valley Credit Union members can call (937) 859-6260.
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