Fraudsters Are Stealing Corporate Funds with Tampered Debit Cards
Scammers are intercepting debit cards through the mail in order to steal the card chips as part of an elaborate fraud scheme bent on draining the bank accounts of large corporations.
According to a letter obtained by independent security researcher Brian Krebs, the US Secret Service told various banks that the crooks are swapping the chips from corporate-issued debit cards with old chips and then sending the tampered cards on to the companies. They then install the new chips on old cards, and when the company activates the card, the chip in the criminal’s possession is turned on, giving them access to business bank accounts.
The payment card sent to the company is inoperable because of the old chip, so there’s only a small window of time that the crooks can carry out their activities before the companies notice a problem.
