Spain credit card hacking scam

Story link: Spain credit card hacking scam

It reads as bad news indeed for anyone who has recently visited Spain – apparently a rogue credit card processor has been allowing details of user credit cards to be used for potentially malicious purposes:

Credit card security breach fear

Reports are being investigated of a major credit card scam in Spain.

Anyone who used a Visa or Mastercard credit card when in Spain may have had their card data compromised.

In Germany, as many as 100,000 cards are reportedly being recalled. UK customers will be contacted directly if they are thought to be at risk.

Card holders are being assured that they will be protected against this type of fraud, but are being advised to check their statements.

Spanish police are investigating a credit card processing company which is believed to be at the centre of the scam.

—

That’s quite a headline, and the figures are astonishing – 100,000 cards recalled in Germany alone.

Certainly we’ve seen a lot of bad news about credit card details being swiped and used illegally – happened to me two years ago after staying in a hotel in Nottingham.

However, individual instances, or isolated incidents of rogue traders is nothing compared to a full blown card processing company going rogue.

The real question is whether the company itself was indeed rogue, or whether it was simply corrupt exmployees within the the organisation? We saw the latter reported the other day about T Mobile customer data being sold on by rogue employees.

Either way, not good if your card was compromised – but thankfully caredit card payments are protected, so anyone affected should not lose out, so long as they double-check their statements and ensure that any false charges to their card are reported.