sweetbay credit breach still affecting consumers
On Wednesday morning, Sticks of Fire reader Gayle left a comment on a months-old post about the Sweetbay credit card fiasco:
This is far from over. My credit card was one of the breaches and [Tuesday] I apparently popped up in Tennessee on a shopping spree!!!!
Sure enough – a quick google finds that there is a recent uptick in the use of Sweetbay’s stolen credit card data.
Gayle offers sage advice…
WATCHING is just not good enough. Cancel all your credit cards that you may have used as Sweetbay.
Some credit card issuers are no longer giving you the option of replacing them, they are re-issuing plastic for all breached accounts. Of course, not all of them are doing this, so you should take it upon yourself to prevent this – kill all your Sweetbay-used cards immediately.
But Sweetbay is not the only one to blame in the credit mess. Gayle’s credit card company allowed the thieves to change her address:
.. when asked for a zip code on one purchase, my investigator from the credit card company said the thieves they had changed it and was able to continue with the several hundred dollar purchase.
Shame on retail outlets that do not check for photo ID, and are only interested in making the sale.
Shame on all credit card companies who put you and I through telephone rigamarole just to DISCUSS our account, but allow thieves to change account information without much trouble.
You cannot count on any business to do the right thing – you must look out for yourself at every turn.
PS: And now grocery stores are trying to even more closely track shoppers habits!
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July 3rd, 2008 at 8:38 am
Suntrust Bank recently identified their customers that had shopped at Sweetbay with debit/credit cards. They sent out a letter informing customers they were potentially at risk and proactively replaced the cards.
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:35 am
My debit card number from Bank Atlantic was taken. We shop at the Sweetbay in Riverview off of 301. MasterCard canceled my card only two weeks ago with neither and explanation or even a notification. I know they have my email address (as they spam it with offers for life insurance, home insurance, and ‘consumer fraud’ protection (ironic?) every other week.) It would have been nice if someone had emailed me the moment it was canceled instead of finding out while trying to pay for dinner. When I went to the bank this past weekend to get a new card there were 20+ other people at the Brandon branch in the same boat. As I was getting the card printed the Bank Manager told me he had to pay out over 200 hours in overtime that week to deal with the issue. I expect the effected banks will need to recoup that money from MasterCard and this story will be with us for a while.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:34 am
USAA replaced my credit card immediately, painlessly, courteously, without my having to ask for it. They heard about the security breach and took care of it for me, right away.
USAA totally rocks as an insurance company and as a credit card company. They only serve military families, though. I wonder why other insurance/finance companies don’t provide a similar level of service?