LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Attorney General Dana Nessel has issued a warning of a new credit card scam affecting Michigan residents.
Affected customers are said to be those using a swipe card, rather than a chip reader card.
“VISA recently discovered thieves hacking merchant point-of-sale networks that allowed the hackers to remotely steal credit card information from transactions made on the merchants’ card readers,” Nessel’s office said in a statement. “The thieves likely gained access to the networks through phishing emails with malicious links that, when clicked, installed malware to steal payment card data. The malware infects a merchant’s entire point-of-sale environment that includes all of its card readers, so it is more sophisticated and harder to detect than a card skimmer (a physical, fake card reader that sits on top of the real reader and steals data one reader at a time).”
It is currently unknown how widespread the hacking problem is, but Nessel’s office has issued a set of tips in order to avoid falling victim to the scam.
- Use a payment card with chip technology;
- Look for card readers that use chip-reader technology;
- If swiping is the only option, look for an in-store chip-reader, use a credit card instead of a debit card, or run your debit transaction as credit;
- Enable real-time alerts on your financial accounts to spot unauthorized activity;
- Keep an eye on your card statements; and
- Consider paying with cash.
Consumer complaints can be filed with Nessel’s office by calling the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection office at 517-335-7599 or by visiting https://secure.ag.state.mi.us/complaints/consumer.aspx.
The VISA alert can be read in full with more information at this link.
