14 DAY TRIAL // Information from Discover payment cards may have fallen into the hands of a third party and, as a precaution, the company decided to deactivate the old cards and issue new ones to the affected customers.
The card issuer says that information about a potential compromise was received recently, stressing that the action was not a consequence of a breach on its systems.
New security code and expiration date
“We have been advised that your Discover card account information may have been compromised. This incident did not involve any Discover card systems, and there is no evidence that an unauthorized individual is using this account number,” the company wrote in a letter delivered to a customer whose card was replaced.
“We are confident it is not necessary to provide you with a new account number at this time, and you may continue to use your existing card,” the notification informed.
However, it is recommended to activate the new cards, which come with a new security code and expiration date, because they are bound to reduce the possibility of fraud.
Clients are not liable for fraudulent transactions
The exact details about the incident that led to this course of action remain undisclosed, but one could speculate that the information was stolen from the PoS (point-of-sale) systems of a retailer and then put up for sale on an underground marketplace.
Financial institutions keep a close eye on the announcements in these online spots to be able to take action before cybercriminals can cause any damage, to both customers and the bank.
Most of the times, a small batch of card information is purchased and analyzed in order to determine a common retailer the cards have been used at, which generally suggests that its payment processing systems have been infected.
Clients should know that, in such cases, they are not liable for any fraudulent transaction the crooks make and that their account balance will remain unchanged.
Discover recommends its customers to check the transactions on the bank statements and monitor the account via the online service.