Got the same notification today
I was super impressed with the way this was handled.
Had the same with my legacy bank (NatWest) except they just cancelled my card. Went in to branch next to ATM I was trying to use and got decline on. They didn’t know what was happening. Had to use their phone to ring up, answer many security questions, then they sent out a new card which took days and I had no money while I waited…
With Monzo on the other hand this was quick and painless.
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Unfortunately there are a couple of reasons we can’t disclose the source of this leak -
Firstly, the merchant is currently conducting their own internal investigation which we are assisting them with - public knowledge of any suspected data breach could compromise that investigation.
Secondly, whilst we can see a specific merchant is very clearly correlated with fraudulent transactions that have occurred on Monzo cards, that does not necessarily mean a breach occurred at that merchant. It could well be within another company that handles card details or payment processing for them.
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This is why I love Monzo, it satisfies my nosey nature (as much as it legally can)
Or they’re very transparent. I think that’s more technical
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This has got me thinking…
Imagine if your physical debit card had no card number across it…and the actual number was only visible via your app (for the purposes of using online, etc…) - it would mean in these situations Monzo could simply allocate a new number instead of issuing a physical replacement card…
Not too sure how you would get round the programming of the magstripe though! or the chip…
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The number is encoded on the card so not possible to change it
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I heard that Monzo were planning on setting up the cards so that they had two different card numbers for this sort of purpose..not sure what happened there.
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I would not be surprised if this turned out not to be possible due to payment scheme requirements etc.
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I think a card number capable of online transactions is still required for payments to work, so even if you were to have a different number in the chip than the one printed on the card, it wouldn’t save you if a terminal is compromised and leaks the “internal” number as it can be used just the same way for online fraud.
Do you mean like the unique device/ card number Apple Pay assigns to each card in place of the actual card number when you add it to your wallet (so merchants don’t know the actual card number)?
Probably should implement Apple Pay for this security. 
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I guess that whilst having a different card number printed on the card vs the one on the mag stripe vs the one ‘on the chip’ could work in most circumstances, it’s the edge cases which cause issues (it’s always the edge cases grumbles the programmer].
For example:
- Ordering train/cinema tickets - you enter your card number (from the front of the card), go to the station and insert your card to pickup the tickets. It reads the (different) card number and no match…
- Receipt matching - you go to return an item you purchased on your Monzo card at a retailer complete with your receipt. The merchant, as instructed by their payment processor, will only refund to the payment method you used - but the card you are presenting doesn’t have the same last four digits on it as your receipt…
Just a couple of edge cases I thought of. Personally, I’d like no number (or only partial number) printed on the card with the number visible in the app and the magstripe/chip number to be different but…sigh. Once everybody moves away from magstripe (USA I’m looking at you!) and a decent version of SecureCode/VerifiedByVisa comes out that should massively reduce fraud potential (until the chip security is cracked/bypassed…)
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This was the problem I got with Revolut. Because I topped up my card with Apple Pay, when proving my identity to get back my account the number didn’t match. I lost said card and had no way of knowing, took like two weeks for them to let me in a different way.
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Could we have a card with no magstripe and no number across the front? Unskimmable?
There are some banks abroad with debit cards that contain the card number internally but it is not embossed or printed on the surface and instead the card displays their IBAN instead (though not sure why) they do however retain a magstripe
Am I right in thinking one of the n26 cards has no card number?
Get a neodymium magnet and run it along the strip, or, get a HiCo writer and do what I do which is overwrite the tracks with useful things like my room key 
(Edit: obviously if you do this you can’t use the card in magstripe ATMs common in the US amongst other countries. But that may be desirable 
)
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It would have to not support contactless as the PAN is available via that interface as well
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Always guaranteed an informative reply from Hugh! Great idea, thanks.
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Unskimmable?
The card number is still available from the EMV chip I believe.
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