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U.S. credit unions are scrambling this week to isolate fraudulent transactions and block debit cards that may have been exposed to hackers by a massive breach at third-party merchant processor Heartland Payment Systems Inc. (CardLine, 1/20), reports Credit Union Journal, a CardLine sister publication. "For the last three months we've been having losses, and we couldn't figure out the source of it," says Luke Labbe, president of PeoplesChoice FCU, which determined this week that the Heartland breach leaked information on hundreds of PeoplesChoice accounts. Heartland processes merchant accounts for the credit union's processor, Fiserv EFT. The Biddeford, Maine-based credit union, which is canceling and reissuing about 500 cards, pays up to $15 apiece to replace cards, according to Labbe. It has accrued at least $40,000 in fraud losses on its Visa check cards over the last three months, he says. "This is a huge expense for a small credit union or bank," says Labbe, whose credit union recorded at least $20,000 in fraud losses last year from a card breach at the Hanneford Bros. supermarket chain. Heartland, which processes accounts for as many as 250,000 merchants, notified its customers Wednesday of the breach that may have occurred as long as six months ago and reportedly may have exposed as many as 100 million accounts, making it one of the largest card breaches ever.
