Card numbers possibly used outside U.S.

TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WIVB) - The Tonawanda Police Department is alerting western New Yorkers to check their bank accounts after there have been more than 20 reports of stolen credit and debit card numbers within the past week.

Key Bank spokesperson, Therese Myers acknowledged that there’s been a breach with their Mastercard credit and debit cards. Previously, they said it was happening at a fast food restaurant.

Myers said, “The breaches are not happening at Key Bank's but they’re happening at local fast food chains.”

Authorities say the security breach did happen to local customers, but also say it isn’t possible the numbers were taken at local fast food restaurants.

They say detectives found evidence that the purchases were made from all over. “The fraudulent charges came from all over the world, some were local, some were [again] out of the country. All of the victims were local,” said Lt. Nick Bado.

“Maybe this is the best information they have…and they really firmly believe that. Detectives have looked at the information they have and they think all the evidence points to a data base compromise, not a specific offender issue,” said Bado.

Myers said ever since this has happened, the bank has taken extra steps to protect customers. “We all monitor our client’s accounts for any unusual activity, but when we’re told of a breach we definitely ramp up our monitoring. If we see the activity before the client does, we call the client.”

Police are working with the bank to solve this case. Cyber crimes like this are hard to solve because authorities run into a lot of dead ends. Bado says the best way to fight this is head on.

It’s important for customers to keep an eye on their accounts. “People need to be vigilant about looking at their accounts and monitoring it daily if not more frequently than that for unusual activity. The minute they see any unusual activity they need to call their bank,” said Myers. 

The U.S. Secret Service has now become involved in the investigation.