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GameStop, Other Retailers Subpoenaed Over Credit Card Information Sharing
New York State's Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, has subpoenaed a number of online retailers, including GameStop, Barnes & Noble, Ticketmaster and Staples, over the way they pass information to marketing firms while processing transactions. MSNBC explains the scenario thus: "You're on the site of a well-known retailer and you make a purchase. As soon as you complete the transaction a pop-up window appears. It offers a discount on your next purchase. Click on the ad and you are automatically redirected to another company's site where you are signed up for a buying club, travel club or credit card protection service. The yearly cost is usually $100 to $145. Here's where things really get smarmy. Even though you did not give that second company any account information, they will bill the credit or debit card number you used to make the original purchase. You didn't have to provide your account number because the 'trusted' retailer gave it to them for a cut of the action." While there is no law preventing this sort of behavior, Cuomo hopes the investigation will pressure these companies to change their ways, or at least inform customers when their information might be shared.
There may be no law against it, but how does it comply with PCI security requirements? Shouldn't those companies be losing their permission to accept credit cards?
with out authorization it is credit card fraud among other things that a DA will throw at me. If a business gives my information to a third party and the third party charges my credit card then that's just sharing? I need to start up a couple of businesses.
open source sub sim. I might start coding again for this. http://dangerdeep.sourceforge.net/contribute/
While there is no law preventing this sort of behavior
Well that, right there, would appear to be a fairly large gap in the legal system. Common sense, decency and good old fashioned right and wrong clearly indicate that there should be a law against this.It reminds me of a scam that a site called RedSave.com ran in the UK. Hidden way, way down in the tiny small print of their Terms and Conditions when you made a purchase was a line that stated "We will charge you £20 every month unless you contact us to opt out". Apparently this isn't against the letter of the law, but it sure as hell isn't a good business practice and isn't in the interests of the consumer. It, and the situation from TFA, are examples of cynical, money-grabbing exploitation of customers. One can only hope that a sensible judge has the balls to come down really hard on them, discouraging others from trying these sorts of practices in the future.
You can advertise in this sig from as little as £99.99 a month!
... it seems like PayPal looks good in comparison.
with out authorization it is credit card fraud among other things that a DA will throw at me. If a business gives my information to a third party and the third party charges my credit card then that's just sharing? I need to start up a couple of businesses.
Apparently social gaming is a great business model for this kind of crap. The mentioned retailers get you after you make your purchase but when you need more resources in Farmville or Mafia Wars on Facebook:
In games like Mafia Wars, Farmville, YoVille and Vampires Live, you know, some of the major sources of all those garbage announcements cluttering up your Facebook, players compete to complete missions and level up. By leveling up, you can complete more difficult missions and fight off weaker opponents. You can wait for your various energies to regenerate naturally over time, or you can purchase with real money in-game boosts. Or, you can complete various lead generation offers, many of which are of the "answer page after page of questions and opt in and out of receiving various kinds of spam" variety. Some of them install malware and adware that is impossible to remove. And some of them secretly subscribe you to monthly recurring $9.99 credit card charges.
Don't ever put your credit card information into Facebook or a Facebook app. Social Media is rife with crap like this. Right about now we should be asking when we'll get to see the findings in the the federal probe that set out to address shoddy "business practices" like this and what is being done about it now that we know about it?!
My work here is dung.
Wow, that's incredible. I find popups and popunders very invasive, so for years I haven't clicked them on principle. I had no idea that it had gotten this far.
I'm going to print off this article (I suggest you do the same) and find the dopey people that I know (the ones who use IE and think sending chain emails is a good idea), thrust it to them and say: "Don't... click... popups!". If that doesn't wake them up, nothing will..
If anyone is interested, I posted the other day about the marvels of Privoxy, which stops a lot of ads, irrespective of browser.
Here's where things really get smarmy.
Excuse me?
Smarmy: unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech
Perhaps the word you were looking for is one of: deceptive, devious, underhand, sneaky, execrable, abhorrent, hateful, annoying, irritating, enraging, infuriating or inexcusable?
It's hard to believe that this practice is legal. I give my credit card details to one company, and it becomes perfectly legal for them to sell these details to a completely unrelated third party, simply because I clicked on an advert on a web site?
This is the best news I've heard in a while. I do tech support for a local Buddhist temple, which has some staff authorized to use corporate credit cards to buy supplies for the temple.
Well, more then once I've been called in to help out with the mysterious charges on their credit cards, and it's always because of this scam. These people are both good-hearted and completely unsophisticated, they see someone offering a discount they don't question it. (Recently these scam artists had to change up their fine print so it's easier to read due to lawsuits in other states.)
The worst thing is it's semi-reputable companies destroying their brands for the sake of getting $10 a month charges out of grandma's checking account. I mean Barnes and Nobel? I used to work for them, I can't believe they've sunk this low.
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
Actually, it can affect you if you don't click the popup too.
It's a major scam, and it's not necessarily a popup.
You click "Continue" on your transaction, and the site summarizes your order. Then instead of a continue button, you have a big button that says "Place order - and get 10% off your next!". What you don't see is hidden in the fine print is a link that says "No thanks - just place my order".
Or, after you place your order, on the thank you page, it'll have a blurb saying "Special offers for your next order" with "Save 10% off your next order!". Hell, the craftier ones put a 10% off discount on your order automatically, and a link hidden at the bottom saying "No, I don't want the discount".
The nastiest ones though are the ones that require no clicking at all - you done your order, you close the browser while inadvertently NOT clicking the "No" link. By closing the window and not declining, you're signed up anyway. Hell, I bet half of them exist in the terms and conditions of sale, and people blindly check the box saying they agree.
Basically, unless you read every word of every screen, it's impossible to not inadvertently do it. It's a huge scam and everyone's hiding behind the fine print. And the fact that people love getting discounts, so a 10% off the next order would be valuable.