(KAIR)--An investigation is launched following the theft of financial information from customers of an Atchison bank.

According to the Atchison County Sheriff's Office, 19 victims have been notified that their financial cards, connected to their accounts at Bank of Atchison, have been compromised. Braden McGinnis, Marketing Officer for Union State Bank, which includes Bank of Atchison, tells MSC News the fraud is believed to have affected the customers of other unrelated banks as well. “Very likely bank customers that do not belong to Bank of Atchison, or Union State Bank, have maybe fallen into this compromise. That's why we'd like to alert everyone to review your bank statements, and just keep an eye on your transactions, especially during the heavy debit card usage time of holiday shopping.”

According to the preliminary investigation, numerous transactions, using the compromised cards, have been made in the Kansas City area. The cards themselves are not reported stolen, only the numbers related to the cards necessary to make financial transactions. It's not immediately made public how the financial information was obtained, but it likely occurred through a hack of a business, not located in Atchison, but utilized by those who were affected.

The local victims were notified of the scam by Shazam Security Services, issuer of the cards, with McGinnis speaking highly of the effectiveness of his bank's security protocol. “Our fraud monitoring service is one of the great perks that we have to offer to our customers. Our fraud service will shut the card down until they can get a hold of the customer.”

McGinnis offers advice on how to protect debit cards during transactions. “The biggest thing that we can say to protect yourself while you're out doing Christmas shopping, and things like that, is just making sure you're using the pin number,” McGinnis says. “If it asks you debit or credit, we always recommend using the debit side of it, and putting in your four digit pin number. That helps all card issuers to know that the likeliness that the customer is the actual one doing that point of sale transaction.”

No suspects have yet been identified as the investigation continues.