Criminals used my account to launder credit card transactions into cash, at least where the company transacted with was willing to refund
Last week I received a notification from Bank of America advising that my credit card may have been part of a compromise at an undisclosed merchant. The email does mention that there may not have been fraud on my card and that this is a precaution; they also advise that I will not be held financially responsible for any fraudulent transactions.
This reminded me that I need to share my own data breach experience with you. Before I get into the real story, the notification I received from Bank of America causes me some frustration. Firstly, I want to know which merchant has been subject to a data breach; they may have other data stored about me that I could take steps to protect. And secondly, I want to read the email about how the bank is hunting down the fraudsters and are going to bring them to justice, not just offering to refund any charges my account is hit with.
The glib way data breaches are notified, refunded and generally dealt with, in my opinion, causes complacency among the people affected and possibly within the companies affected. We very rarely hear the stories of the criminals being locked up or the woes of the individuals who are unfortunate enough to have been affected.
My personal data breach story
In December 2018 I received a monthly bank statement in the post for an account that is used infrequently, and yes some of us do still get paper statements. The statement is normally a single page ..
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