February 25,2009
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News: Suntrust Shines Against CC Fraud.
Suntrust customer, Matt McDonald is pretty pleased with his bank. Still, only a student in Harrisonburg, VA, Matt never gave much thought to credit card fraud. So he was surprised when his bank, Suntrust called him and alerted him that an $150 charge had been placed on his credit card from a Texas gas station. The good news was that Suntrust was already on top of it. They had already flagged the suspicious activity and gave him a call. They had noted that Matt have never, in the past, placed any credit card charges from out of state and, suddenly, this charge came out of nowhere. No usage on the way to Texas, no restaurants, etc.
So, Suntrust quickly closed the account and then, immediately, re-issued Matt a new credit card. Matt was pretty happy with Suntrust's level of service (as he should be). They had already done all the work and then called him at his home to inform him. What's better then having a problem squashed before you even know about it? He'll probably keep his credit card with that bank for a long time.
Even though, still a student, Matt is not naive. His place of work, Massanutten Resort, seems to have high rate of credit card fraud. He already knew of some co-workers who have had faced similar problems. One of them lost as much as $500 on one credit card. Perhaps this is due to the higher percentage of visitors from out of town. Harrisonburg and the surrounding area of Rockingham County have already hosted over60 complaints of credit card fraud. The heightened severity level of the crime was, fortunately, stopped short due to the diligence of Suntrust. Not only was the card number stolen but, the entire magnetic strip data info was stolen, also. This is most commonly by scummers using ‘skimmers'. With this info the thief was able to duplicate the card (minus the CVV code). The card could have been distributed and maxed-out quickly. If the CVV code had also, been stolen, a thief could place charges by phone from any location without being caught. Suntrust caught it in time.