Clients should activate the new cards to reduce fraud risk

Jun 30, 2015 18:20 GMT  ·  By

At least 500 residents in California were alerted that their Discover payment cards have been compromised and received new ones this month.

Such operations have turned into a routine lately, not just from Discover, but from other card issuing companies, too, as compromises of payment processing systems has not decreased and financial data is traded online.

Illegal purchases happen more often than one would want

On Tuesday, Europol announced an ample operation that took place on five continents, and targeted individuals involved in purchases of airline tickets with stolen payment card data.

The action ran on June 16 and 17, and during these two days, law enforcement, assisted by major card companies, recorded 222 fraudulent transactions; these were only for airline tickets.

Last week, a report emerged about a potential breach of the point-of-sale (PoS) systems at various locations at Hersheypark in Pennsylvania. Several financial institutions noticed illegal payments on the accounts of their customers and tracked them down to the amusement park. The company started an investigation into the matter.

Company finds no evidence of illegal bank account access

In the documents with the new cards, Discover makes it clear that the breach did not occur on their systems, and even if it did, the customer is never liable for unauthorized purchases.

Customers are informed that the legal terms or the benefits and rewards have not changed, but the payment instruments received a new security code and expiration date to reduce the possibility of fraud.

The financial service also says that it found no evidence of unauthorized use of the account number, which is why the same one has been maintained. The original card can still be used, although it would be best not to and proceed to activate the new one.

Discover assures that the account is monitored proactively, but credit reports can also be consulted to make sure that there is no sign of suspicious activity.