Credit Card Leaks Continue at Furious Pace

By Bob Sullivan, MSNBC

It’s a letter no consumer wants to receive.

“We are writing you today to let you know that Visa recently informed us of an unauthorized network intrusion,” says a note sent earlier this month by Washington Mutual bank to an undisclosed number of consumers. “This network breach affects the security of your Washington Mutual ATM/Visa Check Card.”

The account numbers were exposed to hackers by a merchant, the letter says ? but Visa never told Washington Mutual what company is to blame.

The Washington Mutual letter goes on to say that the bank will issue replacement cards as a precaution; the old check card won’t work within a few days.

But a lot of information is missing from the notice. How were the account numbers compromised? How many victims are there? Why did it happen? And what’s to prevent it from happening again?

Even Washington Mutual doesn’t know. Just like the consumer, the bank has no control over Visa merchants who leak credit cards, said spokeswoman Libby Hutchinson. She also has no idea how widespread the problem is for Washington Mutual, other than to say the compromise affected “many issuers.”

“Sadly, this is very common,” she said.

Just how common is a source of heated debate in the credit card fraud world, which has always been shrouded in secrecy. But one firm that provides security services to merchants says it’s been told by the card associations that last year, 60 million accounts were compromised, and this year, that figure will double to around 120 million.

For this complete story, please visit http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6030057/.