UI Credit Union: Schnuck’s Breach Hit Nearly 5,600 Cards

An administrator with U of I Employees Credit Union says nearly 5,600 of its credit and debit cards were affected by the cyber-attack that hit area Schnuck’s locations.

Senior Vice President Greg Anderson said early last week that staff members were dealing with as many as 200 people a day, putting in extra hours to address the problem. 

He said more than 4,000 of those customers use debit cards from the credit union, but some also have credit card accounts. About 1,400 credit cards with U of I Employees Credit Union were affected. 

Anderson said the amount of fraud ranged anywhere from $1 to $1,800, and he said anyone who was at risk should get new cards by the end of the week.

“We’re dealing with crediting back to people’s accounts if they had fraud against them – taking those claims to people who hadn’t seen it yet," he said.  "People keep so much closer track of things, especially on their checking account, and especially with the home banking systems that are in place.  People can see their accounts – I think we saw a lot of this fairly soon.”

Meanwhile, Busey Bank said it can’t release the total number of its customers impacted due to security and customer privacy reasons. Spokesman Shawn Quigley said Busey continues to determine which debit cards may have been compromised.

The bank issued the following statement regarding the Schnuck's breach:

“Along with the public, we were made aware of the card compromise at Schnucks locations. As we work with our card processor to determine Busey Debit MasterCards which may have been impacted by the Schucks breach, we recommend customers closely monitor their accounts for fraudulent transactions using our financial management hub of online services. If a possible unauthorized transaction is discovered, please contact Busey Customer Support at 800.67Busey. Remember, Busey will never contact you and request your personal information, and we offer tips on protecting your financial information through our Information Security Center on busey.com.”

Marine Bank, with locations in Champaign and Springfield, said customers impacted by the breach should get their new cards by Wednesday.

The St. Louis-based Schnuck’s estimates 2.4 million credit and debit card users may have been compromised at 79 of the store’s 100 locations.