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February 28, 2007

Update: AG offers advice for scam victims

If you think your debit-card information may have been compromised in the Stop & Shop debit and credit-card scam, go to your bank and change your PIN number.

That’s the quickest, easiest option suggested by Atty. Gen. Patrick C. Lynch today in the wake of the arrests of four men charged by the Coventry police with stealing debit and credit-card information from customers at the Stop & Shop on Tiogue Avenue.

“Doing so will invalidate the old PIN number, thus thwarting anyone’s effort to withdraw cash or make purchases in your good name,” Lynch said through his spokesman, Michael J. Healey.

People should remember that although ATM thefts such as the Stop & Shop ones hurt people very quickly and tangibly, at least initially, the alleged thieves were also after people’s identities, Healey said today. In other words, ATM thefts are “just the entrée to obtaining more information about the customers and, potentially, committing identity thefts,” Healey told projo.com.

For customers who may want more peace of mind than a new PIN number can bring, Lynch also offered other tips.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Posted by Kate Bramson  at 2:28 PM | Permalink

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