Many of you may have watched the news yesterday and learned of a breach in security at Target Stores in the US. Target has confirmed that there was unauthorized access to payment card data in its U.S. Stores between November 27th, 2013 and December 15th, 2013. If you used a Credit or Debit Card at Target during this time frame- you will want to watch your accounts closely. This is not isolated to REDcards, and can affect any type of credit or debit card used at a physical Target location during this time period.
While the breach has now been resolved- if you used a credit or debit card at a US Target store location during this time period- you will still want to monitor your accounts closely. If you see suspicious or fraudulent charges- you should contact your bank or credit card company immediately, or if this suspicious or fraudulent activity is on your REDcard you should contact Target immediately at 866-852-8680. You can find out more information and some possible steps to protect yourself at this link.
22 Comments
It’s my understanding that they can open up new accounts in your name with the info they get. You have to check your credit report not just the one or two cards you used.
Susan, great idea on saving the old cards 🙂
just give it a bit of time and as the traffic dies down, you will be able to get through, or try off hours. I checked my red cards yesterday afternoon.
PS, think about this, the red cards are safer, at least it is ONLY your target shopping affected, if it was your regular debit card, you get to start over will all automated bill charges and such, as well as shopping anywhere.
No luck logging in to red card management (since 7am EST) and when I call and follow prompts to speak to a. Representative I’m told the request can’t be completed and the call disconnects. The recorded message also says to check for fraudulent activity on the red card management site. Right… The one that doesn’t work! 🙁
I tried every number I could find for target all not inn and got either busy signals or put on hold only to be hung up on. I just read through all these comments and called the number given by Kathy in comment 7 and was able to get through the automated list to get a new card sent out. Thankfully it did not appear my card had any fraudulent activity but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
@Susan, currently comment #14, has made what seems to me to be a very important point.
I know without a receipt, you are not guaranteed a return/exchange value equal to what you actually paid (since they don’t know, unless they can look it up by the card used). And pricing is most likely to drop around this time of year (especially with after Christmas sales), not go up!
Save receipts for verification and possible returns, and save your old cards until all is clear!
beth
nowadays no merchant, processor or issuer is immune to the risk of card data theft. It can happen to anyone really. Ask your bank to deactivate and replace your card if you shopped at Target during the specified dates.
You Can Go On Target Mobile App And Make Any Changes There… It Was Faster Than Going Online Or calling….Hth
I only use a target debit card at target and i changed my pin this morning. hope everyone can see this happens all the time and when paying with plastic you are always taking a risk.
REMEMBER!!!! If you have new debit cards issued, keep your old ones for Target returns for items you bought using the OLD cards, otherwise without a receipt, returns are limited. I’ve been caught with this one before…
I made purchases over the Thanksgiving weekend and had unauthorized charges put on the card I used there in early December and it was for a Target in Chicago. Luckily, my credit card company notified us right away, but still put a crimp in our Christmas shopping while we were waiting for the replacement card. Two days after the first card issues, we had our other credit card used again, this time someone trying to put charges on in South Africa. I was trying to piece together which company had the breech, now I know. I think I will be paying with cash or pre-paid credit cards from now on. At least I didn’t use my debit card at Target. If charges come out of your checking account, it can take up to 90 days to get that money back. What a mess.
Target seems to be dropping the ball on this. First everyone who has a Target card should be issued a new one, but they seemed more worried about what people won’t spend on their card between now and the replacement. Two, they should also offer anyone free credit checking for a year, standard procedure when something like this is found. I am not surprised this happened, I am surprised to their lack of quick action. Will make me and I’m sure many others leary to shop there, either with or without their card.
All lines are busy. i cant tell if we had our info stolen because we shop so much at target. there are multiple transactions per day. i know i did pharmacy and ended up making 3 sets of purchases on one day but its really hard to tell. for now i called 1800 394 1829 and changed our pin numbers. figured it would be hard to buy stuff with the wrong pin. Hoping.
We shop at Target in Atlanta literally everyday because the target is across the street from where we live. I believe the dates they have on when this breach occurred is an estimate and incorrect. Back in October my boyfriend had a $100+ Target charge on his bank debit card for a FL Target store. We live in Atlanta, GA and had been no where near FL. We didn’t think much of it and called our bank (USAA) and they glady credited the account back and issued another debit card. But this is a little worrisome because to this day we have no clue how anyone would be able to make a physical in store purchase at a Target store in FL and from what has been explained in this “security breach” that Target is now revealing, it’s making a lot more sense. It’s scary that they could be off by a month of when this may have occurred.
Yea, I had fraudulent activity on my mastercard that I used there last week but thankfully they caught it and called me.
All numbers give a busy signal and disconnect after a couple seconds as of now!!! If someone gets ahold of them can you tell them to just issue us NEW RED CARDS!!
Call 1-800-440-0680 and listen for the prompts to get to a representative about your red card. Was able to get through this way.
My accounts seem fine, so that’s a relief. Banks are very familiar with these situations and it shouldn’t come to more than a bit of a hassle for those who were affected. Hopefully everyone who has suspicious charges catches them so they don’t end up paying for it.
This happens to many retailers that never make the news. This is not the first nor the last retailer to be hacked.
I saw this somewhere else & immediately went to check my account online. Thankfully I only use the same card there & only have to check one. I am now going to try to see if they will issue me a new credit card # so I won’t have to keep checking, but in the meantime I made sure to turn on various alerts such as any international orders, any charges over a certain $ amount, any made online or by phone just to help me out.
I have been trying to log into my Red Card account all morning, but I’m having no luck. This is really a mess, especially since it’s in the middle of the holiday season! I hope Target/the bank that manages Red Cards do their best to resolve the situation quickly and make things up to card holders. Thankfully I am anal about keeping my Target receipts until I pay off my card each month, and I monitor the charges carefully before I pay.
Thanks for posting this! I am extremely disappointed in this! I just checked and I had almost 20 Target Debit Card transactions in that time frame. (Prescriptions were most of them.) I have been trying to call the debit card number to cancel my card and all I get is a fast busy signal. Very frustrating. 5% is not worth the hassel that this can cause. Thankfully I only have to worry about that one card. I hope no one has too many issues.
Thanks for posting this. Just another frustration to deal with, sadly. Hope it doesn’t become more than that for anyone!
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