Military and civilian personnel who used some of the Navy's Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) and Child and Youth Programs (CYP) services in Monterey, California, and Navy Region locations in Guam, Japan, Korea and Singapore, during the period January through June 2016 may have experienced duplicate charges on their credit or debit cards.

The duplicate charges were a result of synchronization issues associated with a recent hardware upgrade that occurred Sept. 24, 2016. Within 24-hours of the upgrade several customers noticed the duplicate charges and reported the issue, which was immediately corrected. MWR officials have been working with Bank of America, MWR's credit and debit card processor, to have the duplicate charges reversed. Some duplicate charges, to include those in Singapore, have been resolved and charges from other locations could be reversed by the end of the week.

Individuals are encouraged to check their bank statements for updates regarding this reimbursement.

Jerry Hieb, director for the Navy's fleet and family readiness programs noted the issue occurred when technicians performing the upgrades made an error while transitioning servers as part of a hardware upgrade. "As soon as our technicians became aware of the error, they immediately fixed the problem," said Hieb. He added that there is no evidence the issue is related to any kind of hacking or release of personally identifiable information.

"We've established a hotline (844.697.4357) and an email (mwr_creditcard_FAQ.fct@navy.mil) for individuals to call or email with their questions," Hieb shared. "Both the phone number and email will be operating starting at 5 p.m. central time today."

Hieb and his team have reached out to the Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society to assist Sailors who may encounter a temporary hardship due to the duplicate charges. Civilians affected can utilize civilian employee assistance programs to seek help connecting with agencies that may be able to offer assistance.

"We regret this error has occurred," said Hieb. "We are developing additional standard operating procedures for all technicians who conduct hardware updates to ensure this does not happen again."

Currently the Navy MWR services are transitioning to the chip and pin process which enhances security and streamlines the payment process. This transition means that when the credit card transaction is initiated it will be transmitted directly to the bank, eliminating the need to be processed through our servers.