B of A, like most retail banks, protects its customers against fraud when it is informed of a data breach, said bank spokeswoman Betty Riess.
"Our fraud monitoring is based on information that we receive from card associations like Visa and MasterCard," she says. "If we think a customer's card information may have been compromised at a third party location, we take these proactive measures."
Though Bank of America would not say which merchant had the potential breach, local media reports note that B of A's actions followed an investigation by the New York State Public Service Commission into a breach at the Rochester Gas and Electric Corp. and the New York State Electronic and Gas Corp.
