

CTVNews.ca Staff





Hundreds of customers have been warned to replace their debit cards after learning their accounts may have been compromised in Metro Vancouver.

Vancouver City Savings Credit Union, commonly referred to as Vancity, confirmed hundreds of its customers have been affected and other bank customers may also have been affected by the serious banking breach at two local retailers.

“We found out this morning from Central One, our card provider, that two Vancouver-area retailers had their card machines compromised as a result of a skimming operation,” Vancity spokesperson Darwin Sauer told CTV Vancouver on Saturday.

Skimming is when criminals swap out or manipulate retail Interac terminals to steal account information.

“This could mean any customer who used those card machines or had their card go through those machines could have had their card compromised,” Sauer said.

Vancity has learned approximately 1,200 of its customers used their debit cards at those unnamed retail locations.

“Our initial investigation has found that only two transactions are questionable at this point,” Sauer added.

As a precaution, Vancity has placed limits on all 1,200 accounts that may have been compromised and advised those customers that they will have to replace their debit cards. Meanwhile, Vancity has been told that cards from other credit unions and banks were also skimmed.

Sauer said debit card holders can help prevent this type of fraud by shielding their pin number when they punch it into a terminal, by checking their transactions regularly, and also by changing their pin numbers regularly.

With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Shannon Paterson