Theft Of Hannaford Supermarket Customer Data Causes 3 More Banks To Act

Wellington, FL (AHN) - There is a continued spate of fraudulent activity on customer credit and debit account numbers stolen from the Hannaford supermarkets. Two financial institutions in Vermont and one in New Hampshire decided this week to replace credit cards for customers whose data was stolen three months ago from the Hannaford supermarket chain data base.

Customers of the Vermont State Employees Credit Union and Chittenden Bank in Vermont and Ocean National Bank in New Hampshire were among the 4 million people whose credit and debit card numbers were stolen from the Hannaford supermarkets' data base.

The three institutions are the latest to decide to replace cards whose with account numbers that were stolen when the grocery store's customer records were illegally accessed.

The Vermont State Employees Credit Union announced Wednesday that it was re-issuing credit cards to its affected customers because identity thieves had begun using the existing card numbers. The credit union reached its decision to issue new cards, at a cost of $5 each after it had detected at least 60 cases of fraudulent card activity on affected customer's accounts.

Chittenden Bank announced Tuesday that was issuing new ATM credit cards to 15,000 of its customers that were affected by the security breach.

At the time of the security breach, Ocean National Bank had only replaced cards for customers who asked for a new card number. But recent illegal activity on accounts caused the bank to change its mind and it announced Monday that it was replacing ATM/Debit cards to all 7,000 of its customers that were affected by the theft.

There have been 1,800 reported fraud cases involving the March 17 security breach. Customer credit and debit card numbers were stolen from more about 300 stores including all its 165 stores in the Northeast, its 106 Sweetbay stores in Florida and a a number of independent stores that sell Hannaford products.