NEWS: Fraud Hush Angers Canadian Consumers
Thousands of Visa and MasterCard accountholders
in Canada, mostly in Winnipeg, have had new
credit cards mailed to them with virtually no
explanation in the past few weeks. The cards
follow vague news of at least four security
breaches at one big Canadian bank and three
retail stores, but the parties involved are
keeping mum on the details. The cards were
accompanied by letters from the issuers that
cited "security precautions," but gave no
concrete details. When pressed, officials
connected to the financial institutions in
question would say nothing, except reaffirm that
issuing new cards was part of their strategy for
preventing fraud.
The ambiguous doings have enraged consumers, who
are pushing for legislation that would make it a
fineable offence for card companies to not
disclose essential details of potential fraud
and security breaches that might endanger
consumers, never mind those incidents that have
already been noticed. Canadian press has picked
up evidence that the card issuers involved in
this new incident may have known something was
amiss as early as December, with not a clue
passed on to those consumers who could be
vulnerable to fraud as a result. Those advocates
of the mandatory reporting legislation state
that they understand card companies' need to
keep certain details about security issues quiet
as a necessary aspect of preventing and fighting
fraud, but say that they don't appreciate the
notion that essential details are being kept
from consumers on purpose, when such basic info
could make the difference between losing time
and money on having fraudulent activity on one's
accounts.
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