Is you debit card blocked? Banks tell you how to protect yourself from potential fraud

The security breach in debit cards has resulted in banks as well as card players to spruce up efforts to investigate the matter.

State Bank Of India has taken precautionary measures and blocked cards of certain customers identified by networks to prevent them from potential fraud. 

"Card network companies National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Mastercard and Visa had informed various banks in India about a potential risk to some cards in India owing to a data breach. Accordingly, State Bank of India (SBI) has taken precautionary measures and  blocked cards of certain customers identified by the networks,"it said in a statement. 

SBI is issuing new cards for free

The country's largest lender further added that they are in the process of issuing new cards at no cost to the customers whose cards have been blocked. 

How to generate the new ATM pin

Cardholders can generate the PIN through SMS/IVRS/internet banking without visiting the branch. 

SBI has also requested customers to use the fraud prevention facilities provided by them. This includes functionalities where the cardholder has options to choose at will his/her channel of usage (i.e., ATM / PoS / eCommerce) and restrict the card usage to domestic and international. Additionally the customers set their own card limit through internet banking  based on his/her requirement.

Visa ackowledges breach 

Similarly, Visa in a statement said that it has been informed that some payment cards in India may have been compromised due to a suspected breach of payment systems at a service provider. "Visa does not currently process domestic debit ATM transactions in India, however we are working closely with all networks and our financial institution partners to support with investigations," it said further.

Players want customers to review their account activity

These players have also said that customers should review their account activity. The Mastercard spokesperson said that they are aware of the data compromise event but added that Mastercard's own systems have not been breached.

"At Mastercard, safety and security of payments is a top priority for us and we are working on the investigations with the regulators, issuers, acquirers, global and local law enforcement agencies and third party payment networks to assess the current situation," it said.