I think eventually they are going to own up to the fact that the period of time where information was stolen precedes the holiday window. In September, I believe, someone was attempting to access my account, and I found out because I kept receiving auto-generated emails on resetting my password for an online account. I immediately requested that the account be deleted.
I mean, 110 million customers (assuming that’s unique customers) can’t be that much smaller than the number of customers who have ever used a credit card at Target. That’s essentially one out of every three people in the U.S. and Canada combined.
The article seems to be saying that 40 million in-store customers had their payment information stolen and that the 70 million people come from a different data set. The second data set includes “mailing and email addresses, phone numbers and names”, so I wonder who would be included there. As a shopper, I have never given them any of that information, but I did when I applied for a job. I think it would also include people who have the Target credit card and anyone who has bought stuff from their website. I am not sure if their website is limited to US/Canada only.
I am not sure what I can really do about it. My debit card is set to email me if I have any charges greater than a dollar and my credit card (that I have not used at Target in a couple of years) has a tiny limit so it would be pretty much useless to anyone. I got my credit reports a few weeks ago and everything looked fine.
What type of account are you referring to?
The method of security used for credit card transactions is done. It doesn’t work, failed, broken, it’s crap, time to try again.
And yet I’ve not heard a single thing regarding any false charges being made on account of this data breach.
Online Target account. I realize that those two things could be unrelated, but they might not be.
I heard several immediately following the reporting of it, but they were people who self reported. Target, itself, has not released numbers. I imagine once a class action lawsuit is filed, we may get the dirty on some numbers.
It could have also been an accident. I know that I have done that a few times when I was *sure* that I knew my username, but then it turned out I was wrong. I would not be surprised, however, if the information stolen from in-store customers happened earlier than reported or if the customers in this second set of data include people who last interacted with Target years ago.
I recently had someone try to reset the password on my ebay account. The email actually showed the IP address of the person who did it (apparently South Korea). I was a bit worried since this happened just after the Target data breach was reported (so I was extra paranoid about my finances), but I was not sure if I could do anything about it.
I haven’t purchased anything from Target, either online or in-store in over three years. Any info they have on me is old old old and useless.
I am sure they could devise a more secure system, but why bother? The NSA will just walk in through the back door anyhow, and probably leave it open to hackers.
is there a viable 3rd party option around the corner other than bitcoin or other similarly esoteric currencies? actual options?
cash-monies
cash monies
no such thing any more
Nah, someone was definitely trying to get to the account. I can’t remember now because I only occasionally ordered from Target to begin with, but I think your user name is your email address. It happened no less than 3 times in the very early morning, I happened to be online and kept getting messages about resetting the password, nothing to do with username. I also immediately canceled the card, but I did get a different number. No activity so far. I tried canceling immediately following the news and there was no way to get through.
I have begun using cash more than credit at the food market. I feel nervous now when ordering things on the internet, but some things you just can’t find in local stores.
Unless they haven’t come clean about where the information was stolen from. If the hackers got into the banking info, they could have ss#s, right?
It used to be the case that debit cards did not offer the same level of protection as credit cards, and as such I never did get in the habit of using one as a primary purchasing method (choosing instead to use a credit card). I haven’t the faintest notion of whether that’s still the case (in a poll of one conducted by same, I found that my level of trust in banks corporations of nearly any stripe is at or below 1%).
What I find absolutely remarkable is that the US has a population of 313.9 million persons. If 110 million identities were breached during that short Xmas buying period, that means 1 out of every 3 Americans shopped Target? Seriously? If you reduce the 313.9 Million Americans to those old enough to have a debit card or credit card (say the 1 to 16 year old age group), then you knock that 313.9 Million number down to roughly 260 million Americans who could have shopped Target. and 110 million compared to 260 million is fast approaching 1/2 of all potential US consumers. Wow!
You have to remember there’s corporate accounts and some people have double (a credit and a debit* account for example)
*Yes, they do/did have debit accounts that you could tie to your bank.
Maybe talk to your bank about setting up prepaid debit cards (that are usable online) then that way the card isn’t tied to your account.
Or just like buy an Amazon gift card for yourself.
