Customer Question: “What is a merchant card data breach? Is it safe to use my debit card?”
A merchant data breach is when an unauthorized party accesses a merchant computer network and steals cardholder data. In these types of breaches, the impacted cardholders are those who used their cards at the breached merchant. They typically impact cardholders at multiple banks.
Unfortunately, merchant data breaches are becoming more common with 974 publicly disclosed data breaches in the first half of 2016 alone, according to the
Breach Level Index*.
Arvest, along with other banks in the region, is seeing some fraudulent transactions on less than one-half of one percent of our debit cards as a result of a merchant data breach at one or more merchants. This is NOT an Arvest security breach and includes cards from other banks.
Please know our teams regularly monitor our debit card activity watching for fraudulent transactions. If unusual activity is observed, we will contact you immediately.
As a reminder, you should also regularly monitor your accounts for any unauthorized transactions or suspicious activity and report it immediately. If you see suspicious activity on your Arvest account, please contact Customer Service at (866) 952-9523 or visit your local branch.
It is important for U.S. Visa consumer debit and credit cardholders to know they are protected against fraudulent purchases with
Visa’s Zero Liability Policy*.
Remember to practice good financial security by monitoring your accounts and reporting suspicious activity to your card issuer immediately.
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