Passengers covering Chicago cab fares with payment cards rack up fraudulent charges

Illinois-based First American Bank warned its customers on Friday against using their MasterCard debit cards in Windy City taxis, SC Magazine reports.

Christine Childers, the bank’s associate general counsel and compliance officer, said the financial organization first learned something was amiss on Feb. 10, after it received more than 10 complaints from customers receiving fishy charges.

“We looked for common points of compromise,” Childers said, explaining that once a bank gets at least 10 common points, it can then file a claim with MasterCard. “The common point [in this case] was the use of cards in Chicago taxis.”

The bank determined that affected individuals had used their debit cards in American United, Checker, Yellow, and Blue Diamond taxis, as well as other cabs belonging to Taxi Affiliation Services and Dispatch Taxi.

First American Bank is canceling and reissuing cards to customers that charge their fares. So far, the bank has reissued 227 cards, adding that there have been 478 attempts to use closed cards, which would have amounted to about $64,000 in charges.

Jim Issokson, senior business leader, reputation and issues management for MasterCard Worldwide, said: “We are aware of and investigating reports of a potential breach affecting taxi cabs in Chicago.”

He added, “To be clear, MasterCard's own systems have not been breached.”

The Illinois-based bank has unsuccessfully tried to reach Bank of America Merchant Services and Bank of America, which handle payment processing for the taxi companies.

Bank of America has not halted payment processing.

Joe Rauch, communications manager with Bank of America Merchant Services, said, “At this stage of the investigation, it has not been determined that a data breach of a merchant or any of our systems has occurred.”

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