February 19, 2007
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NEWS: Flagship Issues New Cards, Cites FraudA bank based out of Worcester, MA, recently issued new debit cards to some 50 customers, due to a mysterious case of fraud in which unauthorized charges made in Thailand turned up in the accounts of people half a world away.
Flagship Bank and Trust Co. was upfront with consumers about the incident, which also affected an undisclosed number of additional consumers through Flagship's company, Chittenden Corp. Fraudulent ATM withdrawals on affected customers' accounts were flagged by Chittenden's fraud prevention team, which noticed the unusual activity. The consumers whose accounts were tampered with will not be help liable for any of the lost funds, say officials.
The fraud at Flagship immediately raised the antennae of MA state fraud investigators, as it followed closely on the footsteps of the customer information breach at TJX Cos. (the parent company of TJ Maxx, Marshall's, Homesense, and several other international discount chains), which is based out of nearby Framingham. A statement issued by Flagship states that no connection with the TJX fraud was found, and that MasterCard has cross-referenced the Flagship affected accounts with a list of fraudulent activity at several retail establishments, and found no connections.