Credit Cards

The world has changed since the 2008 recession.  People became disillusioned with major corporations that hoarded revenues for their own profits, and millions of Americans as well as citizens around the world demanded corporate social accountability from business leaders.

Veteran actor Tom Hanks says an incident with his credit card is proof that there are good people in New York City.  The 58 year old is one of Hollywood’s most accomplished and most popular stars who developed a reputation as a sociable man over the course of his 35+ years in the business.

Hanks regularly uses the New York City subway to travel, and was on one of the city’s many trains on Friday March 13^th.  As superstition would have it, he had the misfortune of losing his credit card on the train.

Did you acquire your health insurance from Blue Cross Blue Shield?  You may be one of over 5,000 members of the Blue Cross network whose personal information was copied to create counterfeit credit cards.

The Michigan based company’s security system was reportedly breached by hackers between December 10th last fall and January 27th earlier this year.  Blue Cross confirmed that names, birth dates, email addresses, social security numbers, and other forms of personal information were skimmed during the breach.

A January report by the Ponemon Institute identified 2014 as the year of mega data breaches.  Two weeks after that report was published, a new breach was announced that hacked one of the country’s largest health insurance providers.

Credit card data breaches that led to identity theft were recurring headlines throughout 2014.  Cyber security experts warned that those types of incidents would continue this year, and a new victim went public last week.

Mandarin Oriental is a high end hotel with numerous locations across the US, as well as in locations as diverse as Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.  But the organization announced that credit card systems servicing locations in the US and Europe were compromised by hackers.

Apple Pay was launched by Apple in an effort to enter and potentially replace the traditional credit card payment market.  Americans with compatible iPhone or iPad devices were able to upload their accounts onto their mobile devices, and eliminate the need to physically swipe their credit cards through payment terminals to complete purchases.

Identity theft and fraud are two consequences of online or point of sale data breaches that have become very common across the country over the last 18 months.  The cost of identity theft and fraud amounts to billions of dollars every year, though the year over year cost appears to be falling, according to an independent research consulting firm.

In the middle of February, Costco announced that an exclusive deal with American Express will come to an end on March 31st, 2016.  The two companies created cobranded credit cards used by millions of Costco customers across the country, but were unable to negotiate an extension to their arrangement.