Regarding the THEFT of 40 MILLION credit card accounts....

[burythehatchet]

This is just incredible. If anyone here thinks that any aspect of their lives is private better wake up.

This is infuriating and the feeling of having my privacy violated is just horrible.

A side story:
A couple years ago I applied for health insurance with Blue Cross. The site made it seem that if I continued giving my personal health information it meant that I would be eligible. This was confirmed to me when the final screen asked me for my credit card information and then a form popped up authorizing automatic payments from my credit card. It was disappointing enough when I got a letter 3 weeks later telling me I was not eligible. (What the hell makes one eligible for health insurance anyway, being in perfect health??)
So I said fine, and now I want them to go into their data base and delete all my credit card and personal health information. They refused. I called every conceivable person in their corporate office and was told the same thingt. NO.

In this society, ALL the risks of living are borne by the individual. Government no longer works for me.

So the processing company in Atlanta which was hacked, they have a CEO named John Perry. He was kind enough to make a mea culpa. How honorable. Why was he apologizing? Because his comany was keeping personal information on customer transactions, IN VIOLATION OF THEIR AGREEMENT. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Said Big John Perry: the data was being stored for "research purposes" to determine why some transactions had registered as unauthorized or uncompleted. "We should not have been doing that," Perry said in Monday's editions of The New York Times.

Under rules established by Visa and MasterCard, processors cannot retain cardholder information after handling transactions.

Calling all lawyers..... oh never mind, class action suits are no longer realistic.

[trotsky]

1. Freed of the burden of "trivial lawsuits," we can only expect

things like this to get much, much worse should Repukes succeed with "tort reform."

[rniel]

2. Heard on NPR this morning

A guy on there said that credit card companies make more money for a fraudulent charge than a real one.

On a regular $20 purchase the merchant pays the credit card company $2

On a fraudulent purchase for $20 the credit card companies make $27 due to a $25 charge for the fraud. Plus the merchant is out of the cost of the item.

I'm not sure I got all the numbers right here, but it got me thinking no wonder they don't want to do anything about making credit cards more secure.

[jojo54]

3. In this instance, it was the fault of the processing company

but either way, it's still OUR money that they're screwing around with. Here's the link to the story in the PA Inquirer:

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/11937861.htm

<snip>The chief of the credit-card processing company whose computer system was penetrated by data thieves, exposing 40 million cardholders to a risk of fraud, acknowledged yesterday that the company should not have been retaining consumer records lost to the thieves.

John M. Perry, chief executive of CardSystems Solutions, indicated that the records known to have been stolen covered roughly 200,000 of the 40 million compromised credit-card accounts, from Visa U.S.A. Inc., MasterCard International Inc., and other card issuers. He said the data were in a file being stored for "research purposes" to determine why certain transactions had gone unauthorized or uncompleted.

"We should not have been doing that," Perry said.>

What I want to know is, why are we responsible for the first $50 if our info is used by the hackers? What, is that like the deductable we pay on our health insurance? All I know is, our MBNA CC is at a zero balance, and I'm so going to keep an eye on it.

[linazelle]

4. ...And if identity theft happens as a result, well, that's just toooo bad

With the bankruptcy bill in place, if somebody steals you info and uses it, you're up a creek. Of course Mastercard (or the other companies who have been hacked) will pay for fraudulent charges directly to their credit cards. But if that info is taken and used as part of an entire identity, there's no way to trace it back to this theft.

This is incredible.

[cthrumatrix]

5. class action lawsuit...big time

[northzax]

6. how is this theft?

they were just downloaded. If the corporations didn't make it so hard and expensive to get this stuff, I wouldn't have to steal it.



right?

[burythehatchet]

10. Someone hacked into the processing company's computer

and got the data.

[fob]

13. Yeah but didn't the repukes "hack" into Democratic computers and

when caught they said, "the Dems shouldn't have had that info in there and made it so easy to get"? Or pretty close to those lines and that guy (Martinez?) is still working for the repukes just fine.

So how can these guys be held responsible if they are just following in the footsteps of the "responsibility" party?

[northzax]

16. right, and people hack into encrypted stuff all the time

and post it online, what do you think the whole napster thing was?

[burythehatchet]

17. I'm not sure what you point is so I'll just assume

you think that this is A OK.

Cheerio

on edit: when you get a chance please post your credit card info and personal data on line. Daddy needs a new pair of shoes.

[MadHound]

7. Well then, since all the risks are being borne by the individual,

Let each of us, as individuals, become part of the solution. Pay off your credit cards, cut them up, and go to a cash only basis(or debit card, or checkbook). Cut the legs out from under the CC companies, and make it that much harder for ID thefts to occur.

Besides, do you really want to continue to spend extra money just for the "privelege" of doing it on credit?

Easy credit and credit cards are a sucker's game, even Malcolm X recognized this fact forty years ago. It is time that we stopped being suckers.

[getmeouttahere]

8. Don't this morons realize....

that the more they screw with us, the less comfortable we are going to be using CC's, which means fewer purchases, and we know what that means.

I challenge every DUer to cancel all unneccessary credit cards. Let's show these fu**ers whose boss!

[readmylips]

9. Best way to beat credit cards and fraud...

Deposit $500. in your credit card, that's the credit line you have set for yourself, which is a debit line. If you have the need to purchase or pay for an item over $500. deposit the money into your credit card, then purchase the item. Every time the credit card offers you a credit line, reject it and stay with your debit line. Credit cards sell your account when you have a credit line. It becomes an open field for everyone to compete for your paycheck.

[burythehatchet]

11. That's actually a pretty good solution

that I had not yet heard. It addresses one the CC companies biggest hooks - the customers EGO - "oh wow, someone thinks I'm good for a 15,000 line of credit"

[Hugin]

12. I guess they'll be forgiving all of those bankruptcy claims then?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I MADE A FUNNY!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Whew... I crack myself up.

[cthrumatrix]

15. I hope LAWYERS are reading this..... big payday for you guys

[Eric J in MN]

14. Why I'm against the Hilary Clinton/Newt Gingrich medical data

bill to store more medical data electronically.


It can be hacked.