The class action suit filed on June
27 on behalf of California credit card holders, as
well as affected merchants against MasterCard, Visa,
CardSystem Solutions (a credit card processor) and
Merrick Bank has taken on entirely new proportions
in the past week. What once was thought of as a classic
case of breach in security now has people questioning
just how hard credit card processors are watching
their systems.
In an amendment to the suit, there are claims that
the defendants were well aware that CardSystems
Solutions had failed repeated security checks
to their credit card processing system, but continued
to allow them to process cards. As a result, the system
was compromised and 40 million accounts were accessed.
Of those, it’s estimated that the private information
on 200,000 of those were literally taken out of the
system. The credit card companies have stated that
only those card holders who accounts are affected
will be notified, but the suit plans to change that.
They want all cardholders whose accounts were accessed
to be notified.
In the case of credit fraud, online
merchants are generally the ones held responsible,
but this suit demands that the defendants be held
responsible for any unauthorized charges or chargeback’s
and the related fees. In addition, it sues for an
undisclosed amount of money for the so far unnamed
card holders whose accounts were compromised.
What does all of this mean to the average
consumer? In general, it’s perfectly
safe to do business online, and in fact, this lawsuit
will likely make it that much safer. But there are
some precautions that everyone should take when purchasing
things online:
- It’s always safest to make purchases from
known, trusted sites. But if you must purchase from
a smaller site, look for the following safeguards;
- You should always purchase from a secure site. To
identify one, look for a padlock or a key icon at
the bottom of your screen when you’re on the
site;
- If possible, use your credit card and not a debit
card when making online purchases. The reason? Most
credit card issuers will protect you if you’re
the victim of online fraud, but a thief can withdraw
all of the money in your bank account with a debit
card, and you may not get the same level of protection.
If you’d like more information about spending
safely online, see http://www.webassured.com/
for a list of unscrupulous online merchants.
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