Most people are familiar with Goodwill Industries, a network of agencies that sell donated clothing and household items at their stores around the country and use the proceeds of the sales to pay for job training and other community service programs. The parent organization, Goodwill Industries International, Inc. has just announced that it is investigating a data breach involving credit cards and debit cards used to make purchases at Goodwill stores around the country. They are not confirming that a breach has occurred, but that is only because as was the exact same situation with the recent data breach at P.F. Chang’s and a number of other massive data breaches in the last year, they have not discovered the breach yet. It occurred. Their computers have been hacked and data stolen. The data breach was uncovered by banks who monitor fraudulent credit card use and as with the breach at P.F. Chang’s and others, the banks noted that a common denominator for the fraudulent card use was, in this case, that the cards had been used recently at Goodwill Industries. You can expect a confirmation by Goodwill shortly. It appears that the breach occurred at Goodwill stores in at least 21 states including California and New Jersey. It is not known yet how the data breach was accomplished.
TIPS
No one should use a debit card for retail purchases because the consumer protection laws regarding fraudulent use of the debit card are not as favorable to the consumer as the laws relating to fraudulent use of a credit card. Additionally, even if you discover that your debit card has been fraudulently used immediately, your account will be closed pending an investigation of the fraudulent use which can tremendously inconvenience you. If you have used a credit card or debit card at a Goodwill store going back as far as June of 2013 you should monitor your account closely for indications of fraud.
This case also is another indication of the immediate need for the United States to catch up with the rest of the world and start using smart credit cards with computer chips that would eliminate this type of fraud. Present regulations do not provide an incentive for retailers to use these cards until October of 2015 although some companies like Target, having been already harmed are speeding up the process.
As for we, the public, this is just another reminder that regardless of how careful you are in protecting your financial information, you are only as safe as the places with which you do business that have the worst security systems.