The Russian mob in Romania is being blamed for stealing credit card numbers from a Fort Smith restaurant and leaving nearly 175 of their customers scrambling to protect themselves.
It turns out that a computer hack of Schlotzsky's Deli's system made customer's credit card numbers available on the black market. Fake cards were created with the numbers skimmed from Fort Smith customer. The credit card companies caught on because the cards were being swiped in different parts of the country: California, Nevada, Illinois, Washington, Georgia and Florida. At the same time, the card's owners were still making purchases in Fort Smith. The cards were from different companies and different banks.
Detective Barbara Williams explains how they found the leak with the help of banking institutions.
"I'm talking to the it people going, 'Okay can you run a query a computer report to see if there's a commonality?' and of course when you do that you have to eek out Walmart because so many people use that then you boil down commonality."
The Secret Service office in Oklahoma City told Fort Smith Police they've seen this before. At this point authorities don't know where the hack came from. The Secret Service has taken charge because of the large scale of the investigation. About 175 customers' credit cards numbers have been used so far.
Investigators make it clear that the business, Schlotzsky's deli is not to blame. Owner Jerry Williams and his employees had no idea that the system had been compromised. Williams told 5NEWS that they have taken steps to make sure the computer system is secure, and he's confident that this will not happen again.
The reminder is that this can happen to anyone at anytime. The chief of police, Kevin Lindsey and a city director were also victims of this crime.
Detective Williams recommends that if you've used your debit or credit card at the Fort Smith Schlotzsky's store in the last year, it's probably best to order a new card.
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