A rash of recent regional fraudulent activity has been traced back to a data breach of the credit card system of a Damariscotta grocery store.
Yellowfront Grocery co-owner Jeff Pierce said he was informed Oct. 19 that the store’s credit and debit card processing system had been compromised.
“You don’t think of things like this happening in small-town Maine, but it unfortunately does,” Pierce said. “As the local grocery store, it’s not a good feeling to have this happen to your customers.”
Pierce said he believed the hackers were able to access customers’ card data through the login system of Yellowfront’s point-of-sale software provider, CStars of Maine. According to a report by WCSH6, a business in Calais and its customers are dealing with a hack of similar nature.
CStars Vice President Julia Warn said the network of an affiliate vendor experienced the hack, but the CStars network was secure. The affiliate vendor’s network has since been scrubbed clean of any malware. Warn said the investigation is ongoing and declined to name the affiliate vendor.
Warn said CStars is currently working with law enforcement officials, Visa, a payment processor, and a forensic investigator and it is unknown how many retailers or customers were affected.
Since the breach, Pierce said CStars has updated Yellowfront’s firewalls and inspected the card equipment.
Warn said only card numbers and expiration dates were compromised. Personal data, such as names, addresses, and pin numbers are secure.
Yellowfront posted an update on its Facebook page Oct. 23 alerting customers to the breach and asking those who used a debit or credit card from Aug. 11 to Oct. 16 to check their accounts for suspicious activity.
“For the most part, everyone has been really understanding,” Pierce said. “We met all the requirements and our systems were certified. There was nothing else we could have done.”
In the past few weeks, Damariscotta Bank & Trust President and CEO Scott Conant said the bank has seen a decrease in fraudulent activity in the area.
“All the area banks that had customers impacted responded immediately, so we believe they have moved on,” Conant said.
