Bank: Don’t use credit, debit cards in Chicago taxis

This is sure to raise alarm with consumers.  First American Bank in Illinois issued a warning to consumers on Friday, telling them to stop swiping their credit cards in Chicago taxis.

The banks says in a notice on its Website that a system which processes back-seat plastic card transaction for cabs is suffering an ongoing attack, and consumers should pay in cash for now.

“We have become aware of a data breach that occurs when a card is used in Chicago taxis, including American United, Checker, Yellow, and Blue Diamond and others that utilize Taxi Affiliation Services and Dispatch Taxi to process card transactions,” the bank says on its website.  “We ask that you not use your card in taxis until we can advise you that this criminal activity has been stopped.”

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The banks also says it has submitted a complaint to  the City of Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection in an attempt to get the problem fixed.  Why? Obviously, the bank feels the credit card payments industry is working fast enough.

“We have also made repeated attempts to deal directly with Banc of America Merchant Services and Bank of America, the payment processors for the taxis, to discontinue payment processing for the companies suffering this compromise until its source is discovered and remediated. These companies have not shared information about their actions and appear to not have stopped the breach,” the bank wrote.

Making such a complaint public is a remarkable step. I’ve never heard of anything like this before. It means one thing: Credit card hackers who ravaged systems at Target, Neiman Marcus, etc., along with other card crime activity, is really playing havoc with our payments system.

RED TAPE WRESTLING TIPS

So what are consumers supposed to do with this information? Well, don’t use your credit card in a Chicago taxi for now.  The warning doesn’t apply outside the city, so you might as well keep swiping your card as normal everywhere else.  I’m very reluctant to give consumers a bunch of suggestions they are likely to forget– listing a bunch of places that you should or shouldn’t use your card, for example. Please note: the compromise in Chicago taxis, as far as we know, involves back-end systems, not card swiping devices or any other change to taxi hardware that consumers could see for themselves.  You might think to examine credit card machines in taxis carefully going forward, but that won’t really do much good.

As always, the best advice is this: Don’t be overly paranoid. Keep living your life, swiping your card, use common sense, and CHECK THOSE BILLS VERY CAREFULLY.  This advice goes double for travelers.

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