Blu-ray Update Sent To User Via Credit Card Records

wmoyes writes "Back in September I ran into a Best Buy store to buy a Samsung BD-P2550 Blu-ray player. I didn't give the clerk my name, telephone number, or address, just my debit card. The player has sat happily in my living room without ever being networked or registered. Today I was shocked to find a package waiting for me at home from Best Buy — inside was a firmware update CD for the player. I used to think Windows Update was scary, but Samsung's update service tracked me to my house using the mag stripe from my bank card. Has this happened to any other Blu-ray owners?" Or is there a simpler explanation?

Comments

Customer information sharing

[Ethanol-fueled]

From the sound of this, Samsung or Best buy are not to blame as much as your credit card issuer is for sharing your information. Choice quote:

First, the facts: The Chase policy, which is similar to those of many other credit card companies, states: "You may tell us not to share information about you with non-financial companies outside of our family of companies. Even if you do tell us not to share, we may do so as required or permitted by law..."

According to the Wikipedia article, the credit card number, expiration date, and PIN verification info. I've seen tweekers do it with stolen cards. Magstripe readers are available for 50 bucks online.

Re:Customer information sharing

[Fizzog]

"they would have to get that info from the card issuer"

No, not really.

I worked for a telephone services company some years ago and developed their customer information system. We would only get one of two possible pieces of information from a transaction: the telephone number they called a 1-900 number from, or the Credit card number they used if they called a 1-800 number.

We wanted to get the customer information so we could send them related advertising.

There are vendors out there that will supply all available subscriber information for a telephone number, and others that will provide all available information given a Credit Card number.

Telephone numbers are not super reliable as they can be re-used, but for 5 cents we would (about 60% of the time) get a result which would give us the subscriber name and address. For 20 cents we would get about a 90% match. We sent all phone numbers to the 5 cent vendor and for those that didn't get a result we would send them to the 20 cent vendor.

Credit Card numbers are quite reliable and for 1 dollar we would get *all* of the information on the card holder. This included name, address, age, spouse's name and age, children's names and ages, your income, and various demographic information for your neighbourhood.

Given that big box stores likely get thousands of 'Card only' purchases a day I am sure they also have similar agreements with vendors, or contract with 3rd parties to do it for them.

Re:Don't panic.

[houghi]

of course Best Buy has access to your home address, via your credit card.

This would not be the case in Belgium. In fact it is even illegal to do it that way. If I give only my credit card details, all they will have is the following information:
Last 4 numbers of the credit card (We are not allowed to keep the credit card number anywhere)
The name of the credit card holder and the expiration date.
From the transaction itself the time, amount, item and card. (e.g. visa)
Some extra information related to the payment itself an the communication concerning the payment.

No link there with the users address. So unless we link it elsewhere with the address, we would have no idea what that would be. Calling the company will result in nothing but wasted time for both as they are not allowed by law to tell us the address.

Re:Cash

[RJFerret]

Except it's not cheaper, what you interpret as cash back is actually compensation for providing your personal information and you having paid extra for the "convenience".

It's sharing a percentage of the charge the vendor has to pay for processing a credit card, ever wonder why some places (commonly gas stations) have different prices for cash/credit? Prices overall could be a few percent cheaper if nobody used credit cards and that "cash back" could be accruing interest in YOUR bank account instead of theirs!

I'll take the 2% in my savings account rather than the 1% you get back after a month (interest free) any day (and Discover doesn't give it back anymore until you've accrued a big chunk).

Also, I use credit cards for business expenses, and the transactions take longer than cash (which I use for all personal expenses). Ironically, it used to be you'd look for the line where people were paying cash as it was faster, and now the credit card payment systems have gotten more convoluted and time consuming than when we signed paper slips, never mind waiting for a slow network day or waiting for the clerk to explain which buttons to press to each person in line. (Although I love self checkouts, then there's nobody there to explain to people how to process their plastic.)

Credit cards have their place (paper trail, online ordering), but they do enable others to profit from you and your information (while you pay them for the privilege).

(And yes, of course pay them off completely every month, anything else and you should use cash simply to not spend beyond what you have!)

PS: Ever wonder why credit companies can afford such lavish advertising, promotions, sponsorships, cash back programs, technical infrastructure all while being subject to so much fraud and theft? It's because they profit so much from each of "your" transactions. Sure you can minimize the extra costs to you, but they have perfected their revenue stream and made it appear inexpensive/painless.