Today on CNNMoney.com there was an article about a credit card fraud ring getting busted. Here is a link to the article.
The tagline said nine major U.S. retailers were affected by this fraud,
and since I shop a major U.S. retailers this caught my attention.
Reading further I found that the fraud was accomplished by
"hacking into the wireless computer networks of retailers including The TJX Companies Inc. (TJX, Fortune 500), whose stores include Marshall's and T.J. Maxx; BJ's Wholesale Club Inc. (BJ, Fortune 500); OfficeMax Inc(DOH!). (OMX, Fortune 500); Barnes and Noble Inc(DOH!). (BKS, Fortune 500); and Sports Authority, among others. "
The DOH!'s in red are my own additions, based on the cross section of retailers I shop at. Just because the ring is "busted" doesn't mean the data is no longer out there. There is really nothing you can do to protect yourself from this short of not using credit cards and canceling all your accounts. The risk will always be present if you use credit cards. See my post on the BNY Mellon Data loss for another example.I think that there are too many advantages to using credit cards (responsibly), so what can be done as a defensive measure?
First, if you haven't checked your credit reports recently at AnnualCreditReport.com then you may be in for a shock. That is going to be my first step since It's been about 3-4 months since I checked on my last one. Checking one every 4 months might not be enough these days. I'm going to be looking into credit monitoring services in the near future. The one offered by BNY mellon didn't really enthuse me at the time, so I'll see what else is in the offering. Goals should have definition and limits, so I'll set a goal of evaluating credit card monitoring services by next Tuesday(August 12th) and deciding if I want to purchase one.
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