Are Retail Stores Risking Your Credit Card Numbers?

If you’re of a certain age, you probably remember the carbon paper that lay between the copy of your credit-card receipt that you kept and the copy kept by the business where you made the purchase. In those old days before credit card terminals, thieves could rifle through trashcans and dumpsters to gather the carbon paper slips and capture credit-card information so they could buy all sorts of things on your account.

Carbon paper has practically gone the way of the dinosaurs, but credit-card account numbers remain vulnerable. Receipts that include full account numbers and expiration dates are a goldmine for identity thieves. The “FACT Act” sets a national standard for truncation of card information.

The FACT Act says receipts for credit and debit-card transactions may not include the card’s expiration date or more than the last five digits of the card number. However, fully implementing this rule will take some time. If you receive a receipt that has your full account number on it, bring it to the attention of the business, and insist that they get with the program - now!