SOUTH BEND — Local police and FBI agents are investigating after hundreds across the area reported money missing from their bank accounts over the weekend.
Police agencies across the area are reporting account breaches from at least 10 different banks, credit unions and other financial institutions. Thousands of dollars have been reported stolen.
Now, the race is on to find out why.
Edwardsburg resident Paul Gardner went out to dinner last Saturday, and says he was shocked to find out his Chiphone debit card was declined.
"My first thought was, I wonder where my wife was shopping today!" he said with a laugh.
He knew the debit card account should have had plenty of money to cover the charge.
"We knew there was money in the account," he said. "So I checked the account while I was sitting there eating, through my cell phone, and sure enough there were some debits that we didn't know where they came from. We didn't know what was going on."
Turns out Paul's wife hadn't been shopping. His account balance of about $260 had been cleaned out.
When he got home he took a closer look at where the money had been withdrawn.
"It was [from] an ATM in Lagos, Nigeria," he said, pointing to his debit card statement. "It's only $300, but $300 is a lot of money."
Paul was never in Nigeria, and says he certainly didn't use an ATM at a shipping yard there.
He also wasn't alone.
Reports flooded in to police departments and financial institutions on Monday and Tuesday.
As of late Monday afternoon, St. Joseph County Police had taken 30 reports of theft from customers across the county, according to Sgt. Bill Redman. He expected that number to grow over the next few days.
The accounts of theft varied wildly, from withdrawals of a few hundred dollars to a few thousand thousand dollars. The vast majority of them came from ATMs or debit card transactions posted in Nigeria, Russia, Ukraine or Spain.
The list of financial institutions affected is still growing as well. Some have been verified by banks and credit unions or local police.
They include:
-Notre Dame Federal Credit Union
-KeyBank
-Teachers Credit Union
-Michiana's Finest Bank
-Elkhart County Farm Bureau Credit Union
-E-Trade Financial
-Chiphone Federal Credit Union
WSBT has also received unconfirmed reports from customers at the following institutions who have reported money missing as well:
-National City Bank
-Bank of America
-First Federal Savings
-Wachovia Securities Spending Account
Teachers Credit Union spokeswoman Becky Summers said about 150 of their 200,000 members reported money missing over the last 48 hours.
Notre Dame Federal Credit Union President and CEO Leo Ditchcreek says about 20 of their 60,000 members have reported money missing, but he's asking customers to check their accounts just in case.
"They're PIN number based transactions," he said. "And from what we can ascertain, the perpetrators have received the account numbers as well as the PIN numbers."
"Everything we've seen has been PIN based transactions with ATM cards from overseas," agreed MFB President and CEO Chuck Viater, who said about 25 MFB customers had come forward to report money missing. "We've now blocked all foreign transactions so that nothing can happen going forward."
"We shut down those three countries, Russia, Ukraine, and Spain, alone," said Ditchcreek, noting they were the countries where Notre Dame Federal Credit Union members had reported money stolen from. "Any transactions originating from those areas have been stopped."
But Ditchcreek says the breach may go beyond just the weekend's reports.
"We received notice [Monday] that about 700 cards, debits and credit cards might have been compromised in the sense of account numbers and PIN numbers. As a result, we have taken steps to replace those cards as we speak," he said.
As for how it happened?
Police and the FBI aren't sure yet.
Ditchcreek has his own theory, that stems from another security breach in early May that affected thousands of customers at South Bend based First Source Bank.
"It appears that data breach not only affected their own particular customers, but it also affected anyone who was using their ATMs here locally," said Ditchcreek. "It's only affecting the institutions right here locally in our market area, which means we have the data breach right here that occurred. It's a guess right now, but we're seeing the common thread to be that."
WSBT's calls to First Source Bank were not returned Tuesday.
Gardner says the theory does make sense, because he's certain he used a First Source Bank ATM at some point during the first part of May, when First Source reported the security breach had occurred.
First Source customers were issued new ATM cards after the breach was identified.
"We use a lot of ATMs all over the Midwest, so it could be [that]," Gardner said. "At least it's being taken care of. We just have to move on and be a little more careful."
The best way to protect yourself from fraud is by checking your accounts regularly, and calling your financial institution when you notice money is missing. You should follow up in writing by sending a certified letter, so you can prove when the institution received it. Be sure to also keep a copy of the letter for your records.
By law, customers have 60 days from the date their bank account statement is sent to report any money taken from an account without permission.
Meanwhile, executives from banks and credit unions across the area will meet Wednesday morning for a previously scheduled security meeting. They expect to share information on the weekend's breach, but all WSBT spoke with Tuesday said they are confident it's been stopped.
Many also said they will reimburse customers for any stolen funds, provided the proper paperwork is completed.
"The institution takes the loss for that, not the particular member or customer," said Ditchcreek. "But we see this as a minor problem. Unfortunately, it's not a minor problem when you're a customer affected by it."
