Australia says first to tip Mastercard of fraud

CANBERRA - MasterCard International was alerted last December of a scam potentially affecting 40 million credit card holders worldwide by one of Australia's largest banks, the country's federal treasurer said.

MasterCard International in the United States on June 17 said it had notified financial institutions worldwide about a breach of security protecting payment data that includes credit card account numbers.

But Australian Treasurer Peter Costello said National Australia Bank (NAB) detected the fraud and reported it to MasterCard and Visa in December.

"Visa has informed the treasury it was the National Australia Bank that uncovered this fraud out of all of the domestic and international banks of the world, and reported it to MasterCard and Visa in December 2004," Costello said.

National Bank was not immediately available for comment.

Costello said he was not aware of any losses by Australian credit card holders.

He said only about two per cent of the cards in question were issued by banks in Australia and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.

Finance Minister Nick Minchin in an address to Australia's parliament said Australia & New Zealand Bank, Commonwealth Bank and NAB had each been monitoring the fraud since December, and had cancelled and reissued cards where transaction were suspect.

He said Commonwealth Bank had replaced about 1000 cards, National Australia Bank 500 cards and ANZ 400. He said Westpac Bank was investigating the cards it had issued.

- REUTERS