So Friday night, while we were sleeping, apparently my debit card info was released into the wild. Nearly $1000 was charged in a matter of minutes. I know it has happened to a number of friends on my feed, and I feel your pain. We just went through this with Eve’s card over Christmas break.
We’ve shut down the card and it should all be resolved by Wednesday or so, but it irks me that we still lag behind Europe and China for credit card security.
It also irks me that even if we were forward-thinking with card security and implemented Chip and Pin technology, which would at least prevent our sensitive data from being stored in plaintext on the magnetic strip on the back of the card, there don’t seem to be any useful approaches to protecting against online fraudulent use of cards, which all of mine appeared to be. It takes precious little data to initiate a fraudulent charge against a card, especially for a digital purchase.
Maybe we’ll end up in a scenario where everyone gets automatically issued a new card every three months, to circumvent bad storage of card data.
OR MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, WE CAN HOLD THE CORPORATIONS RESPONSIBLE WHO MISHANDLE OUR DATA, AND MAKE THEM RESPONSIBLE FOR REPAYING ALL LOST/STOLEN MONEY, OVERDRAFT FEES AND AN ADDITIONAL PUNITIVE AWARD, PAYABLE TO EACH CARDHOLDER AFFECTED. If laws have teeth, they are more likely to be obeyed.
It also irks me that vendors are able to store enough info to initiate transactions. This was the reason CVV was invented — to confirm that you have the card in hand — and the reason the CVV code is not supposed to be stored by vendors.
It also irks me that my bank (a credit union) has no Sunday support to which to complain about the way they’re handling the situation.
It also irks me that some jackasses used my info to pay for completely useless stuff. like Riot Games League of Legends, Facebook Virtual payments, and possibly a gas bill in Missouri, and these jackasses will likely face no consequences whatsoever.
It also irks me that I don’t know the weak point in the system. Was it leaked because it was badly stored by a chain store like Target or Walmart? Was it skimmed by the waitress in Richmond a month or so ago?
It also irks me that we returned home from cleaning up boats yesterday to find a Jehovah’s Witnesses pamphlet folded into our door. They actually came to our door and we didn’t get a chance to dismiss them personally.
Sunday morning rant over.