From Cnet
(news broke on Wednesday):

Credit card and purchase data from 103 DSW Shoe Warehouse stores was stolen and used in fraudulent activity, according to parent company Retail Ventures….

……Columbus, Ohio-based Retail Ventures said Tuesday customer data was stolen mainly over the past three months, though it was unable to say how many customers were affected. Retail Ventures said it discovered the theft late last week….

…..Credit card companies have alerted us there is some fraudulent activity,” said Julie Davis, the general counsel for Retail Ventures.

Unlike that of LexisNexis earlier this week, I feel that DSW’s response is completely inadquate and would cause me to take my business elsewhere:

Customers who believe their data was stolen should call their banks, Davis said.

Translation: We can’t be bothered being proactive here. It’s your problem, pal.

Maybe I need a separate blog category for “Identity Theft of the Day.”

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UPDATE: Despite the proactive response by LexisNexis, that ID heist appears to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. The “C-word” (crisis) is being used by Congressmen.

I am in general not a fan of regulation, but if it worked out to the good for the credit bureaus (and in general it did), then it’s probably called for with other info providers.

UPDATE 2: A new ID heist in Dayton, OH (link requires free registration):

An employee of the Dayton office of the Social Security Administration is charged with disclosing Social Security numbers and related information to a person charged with identity theft in North Carolina….

…..Jerry Woods IV, an employee of the Social Security Administration since 1998, was released without bail Thursday following his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Michael R. Merz.

Woods, 32, is accused of downloading Social Security numbers and information that ended up in the hands of a person arrested in August in North Carolina.

We should hold the Social Security Administration to the same standards as the private companies that have been taking a well-deserved beating in the past few weeks. So….when are the potential victims going to be notified?

“ID Theft of the Hour” is now under consideration as a category name.

UPDATE 3: Bank of America, whose pitiful response (last item discussed in link) to its loss of customer data has been chronicled, had an executive submit this in her written testimony to the Senate Banking Committee today:

Banks and other institutions should decide whether customers should be told about cases of identity theft, a Bank of America official said Thursday in testimony prepared for a congressional hearing.

Uh huh. Your bank’s judgment is SOOOO beyond reproach.

A Senator has indicated that he plans to introduce a bill next week called The Identity Theft Recovery and Victim Assistance Act that will:
- require corporate officers to attest that their companies have adequate measures in place to secure customers’ personal data.
- require businesses to tell customers immediately if they believe that customer data has been compromised.

Virtually all credit cards, most car loans that charge interest, and even some mortgages calculate interest on a daily basis.

Every day their computers see what your principal balance is and apply interest charges to it.

So if you’re in the unfortunate position of having to pay interest on a credit card balance (38% of Americans don’t, and 62% do), or if you have a card loan or mortgage that uses daily interest calculation, you can save money by getting your payment in as soon as possible.

Once you’re sure that you have the money and won’t run short on some other bill, send the payment, even if it’s 15-20 days before the due date. If you’re really aggressive, you can make your payment up to 30 days early by making the payment online immediately after the lender has generated their statement.

Pay by phone (if there’s no fee) or, if you’re comfortable with your online security, pay online. If you pay online, it’s usually better to do so directly through the financial institution’s web site instead of a third-party provider like CheckFree or some other bank’s BillPay service (which probably is CheckFree in disguise anyway), because the third parties add extra time into the process.

Just one example how this little idea can help: Consistently paying $200 a month 20 days before the due date on a $5,000 debt with an 18% rate calculated daily will save you about $80 in interest by the time you pay it off (vs. making every $200 payment on the due date).

By the way, I’m sure you’ll be less-than-pleased to know that the card industry calls people who always pay in full “freeloaders.”