Credit card scam may be confined to one machine

BY JANIE SMITH

Investigations are under way to find out what made a carpark payment machine vulnerable to scammers.

All the machines at the Auckland City Council-owned downtown carpark have had the credit card function temporarily shut down, although general manager of finance Andrew McKenzie says at this point, only one machine is believed to be involved.

"We’ve closed down the others until we find out what made that one vulnerable."

The machines at the Civic and Victoria St carparks have also had their credit card facilities suspended as a precaution, although people can still use them to pay at the cashier’s booth.

Mr McKenzie says extra staff are manning the booths so people are able to pay without delay.

The council was alerted to an issue with fraudulent credit card transactions being made on cards that had been used in the carpark in October and shut down the function on the machines at the start of the month when the banks were able to pinpoint it as the site of the issue.

Downtown carpark customer Dave Lashlie says news of the scam is concerning.

"It makes you weary when you hear about these sorts of things. I’m always looking at the money machines as well."

Mr Lashlie says he prefers to use the cashier’s booth or pay using his mobile phone.

Westpac is the council’s merchant acquirer and helps with facilities being able to accept card payments.

Media relations manager Craig Dowling says the investigation is ongoing and he was not able to comment on specific details.

He says it is not a Westpac-specific issue and customers using credit cards from any bank could have been affected.

Mr Dowling says just because a new card has been issued, it doesn’t mean there was any fraud conducted on it and it may be a precautionary measure.

"Customers should feel reassured that steps have been taken and they don’t have liability."

- © Fairfax NZ News