How Safe is Your Credit Card?
A new study was just released examining how well credit card issuers are protecting their customers from fraud. The study looked at the security practices from 25 of the largest issuers, particularly in the areas of prevention, detection and resolution. Overall, the results identified the top six safest issuers as:
- 1. Bank of America (Visa Platinum)
- 2. American Express (Blue from American Express)
- 3. (2-way tie) Discover (Discover Platinum Card, now called the Discover More Card)
First National Bank of Omaha (Platinum Edition Visa Card) - 5. Citibank (Citi Platinum Select)
- 6. Navy Federal Credit Union (Platinum MasterCard)
You can read more details about the results of the study here.
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Sears/Citibank Servers Have Been Hacked – Citibank Covering It Up
Warning: If you have a Sears Mastercard issued by Citibank, call the number on the back of your card immediately to check for unauthorized purchases. Also, pull your credit report – your identity may have been stolen also.
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In mid-June, 2007, an Internet jewelry store, Stein Diamonds of Los Angeles, noticed a huge increase in the number of sales on Sears Mastercard accounts issued by Citibank. Stein called Citibank to alert them of possible wide-spread fraud and sure enough, there was enough activity to generate an investigation. Phone calls went out to card holders whom Stein had reported sales.
I was one of the customers receiving a call from Citibank. The first thing I was asked was had I recently moved from California to Indianapolis? No. Had I recently made a purchase of nearly $2900 using my Sears Mastercard? No. Well, then, I was the victim of fraud.
Not only had the perpetrators tried to use my credit card to purchase the jewelry, but they also changed the billing address to an address in Indianapolis and used my SS#, birthdate and name to open another Sears charge card.
I immediately cancelled the cards, filled out the affidavit sent to me by Citibank and filed a police report – all as Citibank told me to do. Ironically, they refused to reverse the charges until I received my next bill and only then could I contest the very charges they already knew were fraudulent. Oh, and that could take up to 90 days, I was told.
Both the San Diego, and later, the Indianapolis police told me that they were pretty sure that Citibank’s servers had been hacked and the card numbers and the card holders’ information had been sold in mass numbers.
Citibank, on the other hand, has advised everyone in their fraud department to deny this and lie if necessary. When asked why Stein Diamonds alerted Citibank directly after noticing a huge increase in the amount of Sears/Citbank purchases, the representative responded that this was a coincidence and that someone may have guessed on the numbers and expiration dates (Yeah, he REALLY said that).
Pretty unlikely, I said, but if they merely, guessed my credit card number and expiration, how did they get my name, birth date and SS# to open another account? His angry response:
I don’t know. Now is there ANYTHING else I can do to help you?
Uh, yeah: improve your server security and stop lying to your card holders.
Clearly, Citibank’s stock price matters far more to them than protecting their customers.