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Data Breaches Prompt Maine Bank to Issue Thousands of New Debit Cards

BANGOR, Maine -- In the wake of several recent merchant data breaches, Bangor Savings Bank has issued 26,000 new debit cards to customers whose information may have been compromised. That's about a quarter of the bank's total number of debit cards.

Bangor Savings Senior Vice President Carol Colson says a very small percentage of the bank's customers have experienced fraud as a result of the merchant data breaches. But she says the company wanted to be proactive.

Chris Pinkham, president of the Maine Bankers Association, says financial institutions all over the country have had to take similar actions to protect customer information. Pinkham says as the bad guys get more sophisticated, they can often quietly capture information and sit on it for a while, "until a time has passed when people are maybe not as vigilant or maybe at the height of the holiday season," he says. "so this is a good time to remind people, and then they start using information when you might have more charges than normal, you might be using more Internet purchases."

Pinkham is advising consumers to check their statements electronically on a regular basis.

Ed is a Maine native who spent his early childhood in Livermore Falls before moving to Farmington. He graduated from Mount Blue High School in 1970 before going to the University of Maine at Orono where he received his BA in speech in 1974 with a broadcast concentration. It was during that time that he first became involved with public broadcasting. He served as an intern for what was then called MPBN TV and also did volunteer work for MPBN Radio.