By Mike Rush
St. Louis (KSDK) - It was at the Brentwood Goodwill where Karl Wrice learned of the ill-willed event he'd become wrapped up in.
"I tried to make a six-dollar purchase yesterday," said Wrice. "Debit card was declined."
Because his credit union, West Community, cancelled his card to protect his money and did the same for about 250 other members. The credit union believes accounts were compromised at a Mobil station when somebody was able to steal debit card account information.
"We've got the ability to act very quickly to protect the members," said West Community CEO Gary Hinrichs. He says some of the stolen information has been tracked to ATM withdrawals and purchases in California and the New York/New Jersey area.
"The bad guys, one group of them capture the credit card information and then they in turn sell it off to other folks to use," said Hinrichs.
Although the credit union sent out e-mails to inform its members, Steve Bowman got the message from his ATM when his card didn't work.
"That's the only way to do things I guess, you know, because it's got to be right away right or else they could have my number or card number or whatever," said Bowman.
West Community Credit reissued cards to many members in its branches Friday. Hinrichs says he's not sure exactly how many people were actually scammed, but those whose cards were canceled were at risk.
A representative from Exxon Mobile says she believes the fraud happened when a credit card machine was stolen from a Mobil station on Hampton Avenue recently.
KSDK