Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

By Paul Edward Parker
Journal staff writer

The Washington Trust Company has issued new MasterCard-branded credit and debit cards to 963 customers after the card company alerted the bank that the customers' account information was in a computer database that might have been compromised.

MasterCard had no evidence that Washington Trust's customer's cards had been used fraudulently, according to Michael Rauh, Washington Trust's executive vice president. "Nothing happened to the cards. Nothing happened to the accounts. Nothing happened to the customers," he said. He said the bank chose to reissue the cards "out of an abundance of caution."

Even if Washington Trust's customers' accounts had been used fraudulently, the customers would not have been held liable for any transactions, Rauh said. "You call up and say, 'I didn't do this,' and you get the money back."

The bank sent letters to affected customers, he said.

MasterCard did not tell the bank whether the database belonged to MasterCard or to a merchant who accepts MasterCard, according to Rauh.

The database was not Washington Trust's, Rauh said. Whatever security issue occurred, it didn't happen at the Westerly-based bank. "There was no hacker. There was no breach."

Rauh also said MasterCard did not provide details of when or how the card numbers were compromised. "They don't know if the bad people got one name or a million names," said Rauh.

A spokeswoman from MasterCard did not return a call from The Providence Journal today.

 Tags  Westerly

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