Please read...credit card compromised

[The Professor]

Originally Posted by LasciviousXXX

The problem with the above theory is that there are instances of this happening very recently where no card was used at any of the associating sites.

Might be an indicator of something on a larger scale than just vendors.

Seems like it's not a problem with the vendors, per se, but with the common credit card processor used. I believe that the *vendors* don't keep the credit card information (or even see it); but the processor they use have traces (records) of that in their system.

But the instances where no card was used at the offending sites might be just an example of a different kind of fraud. It seems that there are distinct/different kinds of charges that are coming up, which might indicate completely separate criminal rings. An unfortunate coincidence that they're happening at the same time ... in part because it confuses the issue.

Scary stuff....

[smitdavi]

Originally Posted by The Professor

Seems like it's not a problem with the vendors, per se, but with the common credit card processor used. I believe that the *vendors* don't keep the credit card information (or even see it); but the processor they use have traces (records) of that in their system.

But the instances where no card was used at the offending sites might be just an example of a different kind of fraud. It seems that there are distinct/different kinds of charges that are coming up, which might indicate completely separate criminal rings. An unfortunate coincidence that they're happening at the same time ... in part because it confuses the issue.

Scary stuff....

I guess I can comment on this. Some merchants can and do have access to full credit card numbers and exp. dates. They can have this info on their reports as long as it is under lock and key somewhere. But there has been a large movement to make all reports truncated, meaning that all the merchants have access to ONLY the last 4 digits of the card. My company, Heartland, strongly recommends this and really frowns upon merchants having access to all numbers and exp. dates.

When we had our breach there were serious rumblings about the Russian Mob being heavily involved in this kind of activity.