Hancock Fabric Inc. has replaced every VeriFone Inc. 2000 PIN pad it deploys with new VeriFone MX850 terminals, according to Robert W. Driskell, the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer. The company made the move after thieves replaced some PIN pads with fakes one (
The company also installed automated systems that resist tampering and is continuously monitoring the terminals for any suspicious activity.
Thieves stole PIN pads from 25 Hancock stores in 11 states, replacing the machines with fake ones that illegally collected cardholder data, Driskell writes PaymentsSource in an e-mail message. He declined to disclose store locations because of an ongoing investigation by federal, state and local law-enforcement officials.
Executives at the retailer believe the thefts occurred in August and September last year. Hancock Fabrics, a Baldwyn, Miss.-based fabric and sewing store chain, operates 266 stores in 37 states.
Law-enforcement officials notified Hancock Fabrics’ executives about the thefts, in which thieves replaced terminals with visually identical PIN pads. The fake PIN pads collected cardholders’ names, card numbers, card-expiration dates and PINs.
“While we were going through a previously planned replacement of our PIN pad units, we were alerted by law enforcement that they believed Hancock was the source of customer data that had been used by perpetrators to access ATM accounts,” Driskell writes.
Law-enforcement officials have identified certain suspects, but the individuals under suspicion are not former or current store employees, Driskell says. Although law-enforcement officials told Driskell thieves used stolen card information to access undisclosed debit card accounts, Hancock Fabrics customers have not reported unauthorized charges, he says.
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