I just opened a letter from Chevy Chase:
Recently, Visa, U.S.A. notified [us]...that an unauthorized party accessed a large national payment processor of credit and debit card transactions, Heartland Payment Systems. Unfortunately, your...card number may have been...compromised...[which]means that an unauthorized party may [underlined] have access to your Card information...[but it] does not [underlined] mean than [the]...party actually has used your Card number.
Gee, thanks, Chevy Chase Bank whose envelope looked like so much junk mail I nearly tossed it without opening it. The stamp: Presorted First Class. How many thousands were compromised and shouldn't there be some kind of public warning issued?
No warnings or alerts on Chevy Chase's web site. No warnings or alerts at Visa, U.S.A. Wait a minute, down in the lower corner of Heartland's site is a sentence about "security breach" which, if you click on it, takes you to information saying the breach occurred January 20, 2009, and yet, and yet, it took Chevy Chase Bank three weeks to notify its own customers and who knew Chevy Chase Bank had any relationship with Heartland which I've never heard of, have you?
Yep, this is a fine example of NON customer service at Chevy Chase Bank, another reason not to do banking there. I spoke with a teller and manager at a nearby branch last Saturday, February 7,2009, and did either mention this compromise on my account? You guess.
