Check your accounts folks, mine was drained a few years back and the SECU was great about it, but it is important to catch quickly! http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4421675/
WRAL's reporting this week has been focused on SECU, but it is not SECU who had the security breach. It is Heartland, a major VISA transaction processor for over 250,000 merchants, retailers and financial institutions. THey process over 100 million credit card transactions a month for these 250,000 companies. So it will not just be folks at SECU who are affected. That being said, SECU decided to take the safest route for their members and issue new VISA cards and debit cards to any card that had been run through a transaction with Heartland. Both my husband and I got letters last week saying our cards will be replaced with new ones. Before it is all said and done, this will potentially be the largest credit card security breach in the U.S. and sadly, many customers will not be notified by their financial institutions. So the message here is that everyone should be checking their accounts VERY closely for the next little while. That includes VISA debit cards AND credit cards. What a shame it is that some people in this world have nothing better to do than cause innocent people major financial and credit headaches, not to mention the folks like SECU and other financial institutions who will have to spend their own monies replacing customers cards and making them feel safe again.
SECU is the best bank/credit union I have ever used! A number of organizations have tried to lure me away but it isn't going to happen.
They are one of the best in my opinion. Having worked in a credit union for several years, I actually switched to SECU upon leaving the one I worked for:lol: I was a little frustrated until they recently updated their computer systems and I really hope they go to "real time" banking sometime soon so online transfers post immediately and deposits up to closing time post real time, but otherwise they have super customer service which speaks for itself these days. I will never do business with a "bank" if I can help it. Credit Unions are the only way for me.
Wow. Thank you for posting this. I have a friend who does bank with SECU and back a month or so he had something very similar happen to him. He thought his ex-wife had something to do with it so he never persued it with the bank. He is out of state right now but when he returns I'll have him read the article. The only logical conclusion he could come up with for credit card payments being withdrawn without his knowledge was that his wife gave his checking account number to the credit card companies for payment over the phone. (she is not on the account but does know his checking account number) Transactions over the phone now-a-days are Press 1 for English and you never speak to a human being. This was the only way he believed it could have been done without his knowledge. And yes, she would do something like that.
I heard about this on the news, but we haven't rec'd any notification. SO were just some customers affected?
I'm going to pull my extra money out of my account and put it elsewhere. That way if any one tries to hack it, the bank will catch it. I worked hard for my money and will protect it. Once this thing is under control I will start using SECU again. Their are many ways for a thief to commit fraud electronically. Better to be safe than sorry. TAKE CARE ANNE
Bandmom, yes only some customers will be affected. But the sheer number of transactions that Heartland performs means hundreds of thousands could be affected. The problem is that Heartland was not releasing a list of account numbers that were hacked the last I heard so financial institutions do not know which of their customers were affected. This may have changed now, but at one point last week, I heard SECU was going to replace all their VISA cards. Maybe SECU uses Heartland for their transactions and already knows?? I could be wrong on this. I know our letter stated we would be receiving new cards and as soon as we activate them our current cards will be blocked. Our current cards will be blocked regardless on Feb. 9th to prevent further risk. For now, I know there is a "flag" on our account for SECU to watch for suspicious activity, probably because of the number of debit transactions my husband and I have a month. CarolinaSun, of course it is your choice, but there's no need to withdraw all of your funds from SECU. Remember, hundreds of banks are being affected by this. Bank of America just released a statement last week say thousands of their accounts are involved. You can simply transfer your money into a new account at SECU from your debit account. For example, just open a money market or secondary checking account which will have a new account number attached to it and transfer money into your account now as you need it. It will be much safer that way than sitting in your purse, car or home. I'm just happy SECU is being proactive unlike some other banks who are "sitting and waiting to see". Also, as Hught stated before, if there are unauthorized transactions on your account, you simply notify SECU, fill out a form stating the transactions are unauthorized, and they put the money back within a day or two while they perform their investigation. I use a debit card for EVERYTHING, never carry cash and I've had fraudulent activity happen 2-3 times in the past 5 years. Sadly, this happens so much these days that banks are used to it and have procedures in place to keep their customers happy.
