Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank is investigating fraudulent automatic teller machine withdrawals from several customer accounts over Labor Day weekend. <p>Bank president and chief executive officer Paul Falvey told the Gazette Wednesday that over the long holiday weekend, about 90 of the bank’s customers had fraudulent withdrawals made on their accounts.
Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank is investigating fraudulent automatic teller machine withdrawals from several customer accounts over Labor Day weekend.
Bank president and chief executive officer Paul Falvey told the Gazette Wednesday that over the long holiday weekend, about 90 of the bank’s customers had fraudulent withdrawals made on their accounts. Almost $100,000 in total was withdrawn, he said, from ATMs in Chicago, Indianapolis and New York city.
Mr. Falvey said that while the issue is under investigation and he did not have all the details, it appears that individuals were able to duplicate account numbers and personal identification numbers for bank customers.
Under the likely scenario, he said, people made fake ATM debit cards. The bank is investigating how customer information was breached.
Some customers noticed the action and notified the bank, Mr. Falvey said, while other transactions were picked up through fraud detection. By Tuesday morning, he said, customers were either calling the bank or dropping by. “We made sure plenty of people were answering phones,” he said.
Those impacted were credited immediately, he said. He said there appeared to be no fraudulent activity on Tuesday.
“I think over the next few days we’ll have a good handle on the situation,” he said. Edgartown police were contacted by some customers and are also helping the bank.
He added that it is good practice for bank customers to check their accounts and review statements.
“These things are unfortunate,” he said, but added that bank fraud “is a huge business across the country and actually across the globe.” Those involved are “fairly sophisticated criminals,” he said. In 2012, the U.S. market had losses of about $5.3 billion related to fraud.
For the bank, Mr. Falvey added, “it’s all about the inconvenience to the customer. Financially the bank has insurance to cover this type of activity.”
The bank is fully insured with the FDIC and customers did not lose any money, he said.
As of March 31, Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank had total assets of $505 million and an additional $182 million in assets in the trust division as of March 31. It is the Island’s largest bank.

Comments
Sounds like shoddy network
Ken Esq Edgartown, MASounds like shoddy network security. I wonder when the last time the bank had a complete vulnerability test done and who did it?
Not just the Savings Bank, my
IslandNana Oak BluffsNot just the Savings Bank, my Sovereign debit card was hacked for a flight on Turkish Airlines. My hunch is a card reader at Stop & Shop.
I do not use MV Savings Bank
VictimI do not use MV Savings Bank and this happened to me as, well. My assumption is that one or more ATMs around the island had "card readers" inserted into the ATMs, and cameras to read the PINs. After doing some internet "research", I found that this is a common scam artist technique.
That's actually good to hear
Ken Esq Edgartown, MAThat's actually good to hear in that while card readers while problematic are not as bad a network issue. I wonder why none of the other banks have reported issues.
Always try to block your hand entering a PIN when using an ATM. The banks should easily be able to pinpoint the machine(s) where this occurred.
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