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American 1 Credit Union declines Wendy’s transactions in light of malicious cyberattacks.

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American 1 Credit Union declines Wendy’s transactions in light of malicious cyberattacks.

10/6/2016

On Wednesday, September 29, American 1 Credit Union announced that, effective Monday, October 3, all American 1 credit and debit cards would be temporarily declined at all Wendy’s restaurant locations. While Wendy’s has reported that the malware responsible for the cyberattacks has been disabled at all franchise locations affected by the data breach, community members have still been reporting fraudulent activity on their accounts, even after reissuance of their debit or credit card. Therefore, in order to protect member accounts, the credit union made the decision to decline all credit and debit card transactions at any Wendy’s location until further notice. 

American 1 Credit Union’s total losses to date due to the Wendy’s cyberattack are equal to the losses taken with the Home Depot data breach in 2014, and continue to grow. During the Home Depot cyberattacks, over 4,200 cards were reissued. Of the stolen funds returned to members’ accounts, only 11% of that amount was covered by insurance, with American 1 paying for the remaining 89% of losses out of pocket. 

“When malicious cyberattacks like the recent attack on Wendy’s occur, there are many victims,” said David Puckett, CEO of American 1. “Not only are the cardholders’ assets put at risk, but the financial institutions that issued the cards are left to foot the bill of any resulting theft – not wanting their members to suffer from an unfortunate event that was neither party’s fault. It’s a no-win situation.” 

American 1 has the largest card base of any financial institution in the Jackson County area with over 47,000 issued cards. Over 18,000 of those cards were compromised with the recent Wendy’s cyberattacks. The amount of stolen money American 1 has already returned to its members is just shy of the amount returned in the Home Depot cyberattacks with additional disputes being resolved daily.

“Until we are confident that our members’ cards are no longer at risk when used at Wendy’s, we will continue declining the transactions,” continues Puckett. “As their local credit union, the best interest of our members is our number one priority.”

American 1 has provided additional information regarding the Wendy’s cyberattacks and card use safety tips on their website, www.american1cu.org.



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