El Campo credit card users hit by national fraud case
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

It's highly unlikely local businesses are the culprit in credit card fraud cases running rampant in El Campo.

"It's an epidemic," El Campo Police Chief Jim Elliott said. "It's not the restaurants - this most likely was done on the Internet."

Lt. Terry Stanphill is investigating the local fraud reports.

"Very few people are filing actual police reports, but I did get to most of the banks and I've discovered between 20 to 25 individual accounts that have been attacked," Stanphill said.

At least three local banks have had accounts hacked so far, he added.

"I haven't had access to all these accounts that have been hit, but the ones I've been given access to, I haven't found anything to support that the card numbers have been taken through local restaurants," Stanphill said. "Bankers tell me there's several places security could have been breached, not necessarily at the merchant, not necessarily even in El Campo. There's so many different ways these crooks are infiltrating the system."

Credit and debit card numbers, Stanphill said bankers have told him, are bought from an out-of-state vendor and on at least some of them, the sequential numbers identify the local bank.

"The other numbers in there are not in sequence, but some criminals have software programs where, if they get one (working number), the software will randomly insert numbers until they find other working numbers," he said. "That's just one of the ways the criminals are hacking the system."

The crime is rampant all over the United States.

"It's not isolated to El Campo, but we've never had this many at one time before," Stanphill said.

Most of the false charges on El Campo cards occurred in California, in a suburb of Los Angeles, although some were made in Mexico and Nevada, he said. They don't appear to have occurred by someone stealing a single card number, but rather by an organized, tech-savvy group.

"These are credit card charges, not debit charges, at out-ofstate businesses, and they keep going until that credit card has been canceled," Stanphill said. "Somehow - we don't know how - they've gotten the credit card numbers. Most likely they've reproduced a fictitious credit card with a different name, but the same number. This is definitely organized. Probably the person actually using the credit card is in the bottom of the organization."

He has contacted the FBI, and had California law enforcers help him find out what's occurring.

"I followed up on one case all the way through the delivery driver," Stanphill said. "It was either an online purchase or telephone purchase. The merchandise was delivered to a big housing project near Los Angeles. The suspect met the delivery driver outside. We don't even know if the suspect lives there."

There is no one particular local place that ties all the victims together.

"One victim I know personally has only used his card once since he owned it, so I doubt that was stolen locally," Stanphill said. "Another only used his one time, to make online purchase."

At most, victims of the crime are out a $50 fee, but otherwise are not responsible for fraudulent charges.

"Most of the ones I've looked at so far, either Visa or MasterCard or whoever issued it are suffering the loss, or possibly the merchant, or in some cases the local branch bank, but I haven't heard of any customer so far who has lost any money," the detective said.

A couple of basic steps can help consumers keep their credit and debit card information secure.

"What I would advise is never to let your credit or debit card out of your view," he said. "Only use it at places you can swipe it right at the counter.

"Also, most every bank offers online banking, so sign on and monitor your account, and notify your bank immediately if you see suspicious activity."

He said officials are doing all they can to stop the fraud, but that it's difficult to track the criminals.

"I know all the banks are working very hard on it, and I've put in a call to FBI, but I have a feeling this is relatively small in their scope of things," he said. "Some people I've talked to in banking fraud said this is a worldwide problem, and the losses are pretty high."