MSNBC has a report and a video "Wave of ATM fraud indicates criminals have upped the ante" about what seems to be an increase in debit card losses. Who loses? You do. I wrote about a skimming arrest in this Security blog where two men were arrested with 254 cards and $85M. Another entry in the Anti-Phishing blog has a story of a bank whose customers gave up bank info and the bank has to pay them back $140M.

As more of this hits the press, your folks need to know how to process these claims. I was speaking with a regulator in DC the other day and he was concerned that some bankers follow the same mis-information that is in the video report. If a consumer waits beyond 60 days, they're not automatically liable for all the transfers.

FYI, shameless plug, this will be covered in my Reg. E webinar next week.

The irony here is that the consumer is protected from fraudulent transfers over between 60 and 90 days. With most of these scams, the hot plastic is used quickly and then abandoned, so that most consumers should be fully reimbursed for their losses. The hassle of having to deal with overdrafts and bounced checks, though, makes it extremely important that consumers keep a close watch on their deposit account activity.

Invest two hours and a few dollars in Andy's webinar. It will be well worth it.

Thanks, Grandpa (formerly known as John).

We will hopefully see some of this recent press tone down with the recent arrests of 14 people. See my blog entry for details. But I fear other questions will be asked and at a higher level.

Where else might this data be now?
How was it obtained?
How could it have been better protected?
What improvements do we need to make today, and for tomorrow?
Are "smart cards" the answer?