Vystar, authorities investigating account scam

First Coast News

JACKSONVILLE, FL - Jacksonville-based Vystar Corporation is working with the U.S. Secret Service and other authorities to catch whomever is behind a data theft.

"We're closing in on them," said Richard Alfirevic, chief operating officer for Vystar.

The credit union has discovered that the accounts of more than one hundred customers have been affected.

Their account information was stolen and the thieves used that information to create new credit cards.

"It may involved some skimming," said Alfirevic. "We are looking at everything."

Alfirevic said this is not an institutional problem. Customers' cards were compromised somewhere, but the credit union is making customers whole.

"We are restoring customers accounts," he said. "We are giving them new cards with new account numbers."

Secret Service agent Lee Fields said it is too early in the investigation to say, but the scam appears to be confined to the Northeast Florida area.

"This is not an intrusion case, but when you have 100 people with the same problem it is significant," said Fields.

He said the cards were compromised, what they're working on finding out now is where and how.

"We have determined it is in the Duval and Clay counties," said Fields.

Vystar officials say if a customer has any questions or doubts about the transactions on his or her account, to contact the credit union immediately.

Chris Leach, a Vystar customer for the past six years, said he will check his account more often because of the scam.

"It is a little discomforting," said Leach. "If you use a bank period, you hear on the news you want to check your stuff."

Ron Smith, executive director of information technology and chief security officer at Florida State College at Jacksonville, said consumers can minimize their risk by several steps.

"Don't use a free WiFi to access your bank account," said Smith.

Don't use a publicly available computer to do your banking and don't use an ATM before checking for skimming devices, he suggested.

"If there's something sticking out the slot, or it appears loose, or there's a camera hanging, don't use that ATM," said Smith.

He also suggested that you go over the keypad randomly before completing your business.

"You do that to keep someone from using an infrared device to capture the order of your pin code," said Smith.

Vystar executives are now rolling out a more secured credit and debit card, which contains a chip versus a magnetic strip and that makes it more difficult to steal your information.

Members should have the new card by October 2015.

Could this be linked to the Home Depot data breach? Check out this post on a data security website.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/local/2014/09/09/vystar-scam-accounts-compromised/15326781/