Shop at Target, become a target....

[CaptPatrick]

A security breach involving nearly all of Target's 1,797 stores in the United States. Hackers have stolen data from up to 40 million credit and debit cards of shoppers who visited its stores during the first three weeks of the holiday season, (from November 27th through last Wednesday).

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/20/us-target-breach-idUKBRE9BH1GX20131220

Merry F**kin' Christmas!

[CaptPatrick]

5 Tips on protecting yourself from credit card fraud:

•Debit or credit? Use credit over debit when you swipe your card. The Federal Credit Billing Act offers protections that don’t exist when you pay with debit. You’re never on the hook for a fraudulent transaction when you use credit cards.

•Avoid carrying cards in your purse or wallet that you don’t need. If your wallet is stolen, multiple cards gives the thieves more options to spend your money.

•If you do use a debit card, change your pin code. Think of your pin like an online password- the older and more used it is, the higher the likelihood that it can be cloned or stolen.

•Put your Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) credit cards in aluminum or a metallic sleeve. An RFID card has a chip imbedded that broadcasts your information and has no on or off switch. A metal sleeve blocks the frequency.

•Pay attention to small charges on your statement—such as $0.07 or $0.04. Many times, scammers will test your account with smaller charges to see if they can gain access, then they will hit your account with a bigger charge.

[CaptPatrick]

My biggest tip is remember that Cash is King... While a lot of people don't fell comfortable carrying a large wad of cash around, their liability is limited to the cash in their pocket or purse.

[Bruce]

One problem with cash Pat, they want to eliminate it.
The printing costs are prohibitive but the biggest is the ability to hide taxable revenue for states and the feds.

What's holding the final death song of cash? Poor folks who don't use bank accounts. But that has been changing starting when the tax payer money give away service started using debit cards and EBT cards instead of checks. Get em used to it, then turn off the cash supply.
Direct deposit is the standard for most business pay, gov't services and other transactions.

It will be much easier when the US dollar no longer holds the position of petrol standard.

One can also look at it this way. Eliminate cash and and a good part of the debt goes away from unclaimed fiat currency that's being laundered from illegal activities.

Once everything is computerized and all financial transactions recorded, the appropriate taxing authorities will get their cake and eat it too.

[Dug]

My sister in law went on a tirade on Xmas day about how you have to keep your magnetic strip cards in an aluminum or stainless sleeve to keep them from being stolen but that chip cards are awesome and Europe is going all chip.

I told her that the RFID chips were SOP in much of manufacturing to track inventory. And that they broadcast info. Hence she had it backwards. She scowled...

Just trying to help... I should know better.

Dug

[Navatech]

Europe HAS gone all smart chip on their "plastic" money but "old" style (magnetic strip) cards do not need to be protected from "proximity" readers…

FWIW, the criminal element has already cracked the security of these smart chips and can duplicate them… Hence they don't offer protection from "cloned" cards…