So a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger might be costing you more than $1.99. Recently, many credit unions have been experiencing an unusually high level of debit card fraud from the breach at Wendy’s, the American fast food chain. The losses are reportedly in excess of those seen during the breaches at Target and Home Depot. While Wendy’s does not yet know the extent of the breach or the number of impacted customers, it did confirm that malware designed to steal card data was found on some of their systems.
Dan Berger, CEO at the National Association of Federal Credit Unions, said that many credit unions experienced a large increase in debit card fraud shortly before the Wendy’s breach was made public. He also stated that a lot of the fraud was then tied to customers who’d made transactions at Wendy’s locations less than a month prior. It also seems that the cyber-criminals were targeting debit accounts with lots of money in them (how convenient!). Wendy’s declined to comment on these findings.
It’s opportune to point out the benefits of using cash (a practice that is increasingly less frequent these days). Aside from cash being almost untraceable, it has a lot of other benefits like promoting budgeting and avoiding debt. I know it’s a lot easier to swipe my Amex for a pair for $200 jeans than it is to hand over two President Franklins. While using cash may not always be an option, breaches like this one, prove that they can help protect us.