Late night vending machine visits and coffee breaks have turned into a regrettable experience for some Georgia State students, after having their credit card information stolen.
Word began spreading with a string of comments on Georgia State’s “GSU Book Exchange” Facebook group.
On Feb. 9, Georgia State student Linda Chau posted the first related announcement, warning students that she had fallen victim to credit card fraud. After using her card at a Langdale Hall vending machine and then at Saxby’s, Chau said, there was a charge in a Dunwoody Zara for $230, and in a Publix in Sandy Springs for $200.
Chau told The Signal that Discover, her credit card company, notified her of suspicious activity, and she reported it to the bank. Discover, however, was unable to pinpoint where the card was skimmed.
“Their guess is that [the penetrator] made a copy of my card and reproduced it because the purchases were made with a physical copy [of the card] even though I had the real one on me,” she said.
Following her post, 10 other students shared similar experiences, claiming money had been wrongly charged on their accounts.
Sami Fuentes, another Georgia State student said that faulty charges appeared on her account as well after she made a purchase at the university bookstore. Fuentes said that a couple days later, someone made recurrent $39 payments, for ‘private internet’ in California.
However, Wade Douglas, the bookstore manager said they have received zero complaints from students for random charges in their accounts. The university bookstore is run independently from Georgia State, through Follett Higher Education, their own secure network.
Another student, Kim-Anh Vu, commented about suspicious purchases after she used a Sparks Hall vending machine.
Shavanee Reid, a Georgia State student expressed concern on the school’s general safety, commenting, “Not only do I have to worry about being robbed at gunpoint, but now I have to worry about some stranger stealing the number on my cards”.
The first to take initiative on the students’ growing concerns was the Georgia State Student Government Association (SGA), announcing during its March 10 Campus Safety Forum that they have are in communication with Catrice Clark, director of Georgia State’s Revenue, Receivable and Cashiering Services (RRCS).
In the meeting, SGA Executive Vice President Nick Smith said they are eager to address the issue as it has happened to two of their own, one of which is Anthony Nguyen, VP for Public Relations.
Nguyen told The Signal he only noticed an unusual purchase because of his notification settings with Wells Fargo.
“I only got this email because I set my notifications to inform me of every online purchase. If I didn’t have this optional setting, I’d probably never realize I had approximately $243 stolen from me via card fraud,” he said.
Nguyen recalls the last place he used his card to be Saxby’s Café inside the library. The money was spent on a camping website based in Seattle, but Nugyen said he’ll never know the culprit’s intentions, because those kinds of criminals go by unnoticed.
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“I am worried that many students have been affected by such an issue, but are totally oblivious that they’ve been robbed,” he said. “This kind of issue is one that does not get the attention it needs, as card theft is a serious concern and needs to be made aware to every individual.”
After correspondence with the Georgia State Payment Card Industry Compliance Team, Nguyen said they suggested anyone affected to report the false charges to their credit card companies for investigation.
As part of the PCI compliance team, Clark told The Signal all service transactions on campus are outsourced to a third-party vendor,which is required to be Payment Card Industry-Data Security Standard (PCI-DDS) compliant. The vendor then transmits the transactions to their card processors. The vendors are responsible to report breaches, and attest any problems, and fulfill safety and transaction requirements set by the university.
Clark said that Auxillary services contacted their vendors and they reported having no complaints of fraud, however, the university will address the issue in the renewing contract requirements for their vendors.
“Nothing specific has been done yet, but things are on-going between vendors and auxillary services, and we are continuing to work on making sure the vendors fulfill their requirements,” she said.
However, Clark said because of the consolidation, it’s a sticky time when contracts are being renewed and it’s hard to tend to the student concerns as quickly.
As for catching the bad guy, Clark related to a personal experience and said the customer never learns about whether the person that committed the fraud will be persecuted.
“I was given my money back and told that the bank will investigate. But from a consumer standpoint, you don’t get any more details than that, “ she said.
