Police investigating rash of recent incidents in Lower Mainland
Gillian Shaw
Sun
Debit card fraud on rise Photograph by : Vancouver Sun File
When Mark Wong ordered a sandwich and fries at a Richmond McDonald’s recently, he didn’t expect it to cost $500.
But that’s the amount drained out of Wong’s bank account after he and co-workers had lunch at McDonald’s on Bridgeport Road near Ikea and found themselves among the victims of Canada’s super-sized debit card fraud.
Debit card fraud has more that doubled during the past three years, reaching close to $100 million in 2006.
And it’s the second time in as many weeks that a McDonald’s fast food outlet has been named as the place where debit card information was lifted.
“I had the new ham-and-Swiss sandwich with fries and a coffee, and the bill was under 10 bucks, but it cost me $500,” said Wong. “When I went to the bank, basically they said it is an epidemic — the teller said they get lots of people coming in, and that was just at my branch.”
Across Canada, banks and financial institutions reimbursed debit card customers about $95 million stolen from their accounts in 2006, up from $70 million in 2005, and $44 million in 2003.
Wong and his co-workers’ losses come on the heels of another debit card debacle when at least 100 people were victimized in a massive debit-card-skimming scam at Delta’s Scottsdale Mall. Victims there pointed to the McDonald’s Express outlet as the common place where they had all used their cards.
Wong said 12 people at his workplace alone who also ate at McDonald’s were affected by the fraud. In his case, Wong discovered $500 was withdrawn from a Toronto banking machine in the middle of the night after his lunch, using a debit card that had been created with his information and personal identification number (PIN). His bank reimbursed the stolen funds.
“I consider myself lucky because they only took $500 from me,” he wrote in an e-mail describing the theft. “Others I work with lost over $1,000. We had one person’s account totally drained.
“As a group, we are very frustrated with McDonald’s lack of security about this. So far, I have not even heard a reply after several attempts to contact McDonald’s.”
McDonald’s Canada responded to an interview request from The Vancouver Sun with an eight-line e-mail that failed to provide any explanation for the incident.
“Upon learning of these isolated situations, we responded immediately and have been in contact with local police. We will cooperate fully with their investigations,” the prepared statement read, urging people to “rest assured” the company is working to “further protect our restaurants and customers against criminal activity.”
Valerie MacLean, executive-director of the B.C. Crime Prevention Association, said the burden of responsibility for ensuring that debit card terminals haven’t been tampered with or customers’ information isn’t being lifted lies with merchants.
“Debit card fraud is on the rise,” she said. “The repercussions of these incidents are that people are going to lose confidence in using their debit cards.”
Richmond RCMP confirmed the Bridgeport McDonald’s debit card incidents, but Cpl. Peter Thiessen said that while police are investigating, they still don’t know how the fraud was carried out.
Tina Romano, spokeswoman for the Interac Association, said there are a number of ways fraudsters can use hidden equipment to copy information from the card and capture a customer’s PIN.
“Sometimes they’ll use pinhole cameras to capture you entering the PIN,” she said. “Sometimes they might involve an employee, sometimes not.”
The fraud artists can also install a skimmer that captures the information from a card without tipping off the customer that anything is amiss.
Romano said of the four billion debit card transactions per year in Canada, 99.9 per cent go through problem-free.
“Debit card fraud affects a fraction of one per cent,” she said. “Victims of debit card fraud will not suffer any financial losses because they are protected by the Canadian Code of Practice for Consumer Debit Card Services.”
