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Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:26 pm
by Burn
Autobot032 wrote:
Banjo-Tron wrote:
Burn wrote:Because as far as the merchant is concerned, they're customers not criminals, giving out data like that will be a breach of their privacy.

Oh OK. I assumed that the bank was the one that obscured their details, not the merchant. Does that mean that their identities are protected if, say, the police wanted to see 'em?


No. With a warrant or a subpoena, PayPal has to release that information so an arrest may be made.


Which then brings back the issue of who gets the police involved?

In this particular instance I think the police could easily get involved, there are a number of people affected, they have a source of where the information was gathered from, an investigation could and should be launched.

Perhaps some of you affected members could approach your local police and explain the situation to them? They may be able to point you in a direction where a number of you can give the necessary info to help get things rolling.

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 4:48 pm
by Stormrider
Burn wrote:
Autobot032 wrote:
Banjo-Tron wrote:
Burn wrote:Because as far as the merchant is concerned, they're customers not criminals, giving out data like that will be a breach of their privacy.

Oh OK. I assumed that the bank was the one that obscured their details, not the merchant. Does that mean that their identities are protected if, say, the police wanted to see 'em?


No. With a warrant or a subpoena, PayPal has to release that information so an arrest may be made.


Which then brings back the issue of who gets the police involved?

In this particular instance I think the police could easily get involved, there are a number of people affected, they have a source of where the information was gathered from, an investigation could and should be launched.

Perhaps some of you affected members could approach your local police and explain the situation to them? They may be able to point you in a direction where a number of you can give the necessary info to help get things rolling.



It is definitely a good idea, but probably won't warrant any attention from the police unless TFCC gets the police involved. Having gone through identity theft I can tell you first hand that the police don't consider fraudulent charges a serious crime unless you actually lose money.

Probably the best people to get involved in this is your State Attorney General and/or FBI. Most major cities have an FBI branch you can call and the State Attorney General you can reach via websites. They have the power to investigate especially where it affected a large number of people.

Does anyone else think it's more than a coincidence that these fraudulent charges went rampant at the time of the Runamuck/Runabout went on sale? Of all the places to hit on the internet - why a Transformers fan club and why at this particular period? I think the thieves are TF fans or have inside knowledge about TFCC.

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 2:48 am
by Banjo-Tron
Sid Burn wrote:TFCC is giving out refunds on their memberships based on the remaining time on your membership

If we did this, would it forefeit our right to receive Runamuck? I suppose we could do it just after Runabout is shipped. I guess that would hurt FunPub some. I'm still surprised that Hasbro hasn't waded in on this debacle.

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 3:01 am
by chuckdawg1999
Banjo-Tron wrote:
Sid Burn wrote:TFCC is giving out refunds on their memberships based on the remaining time on your membership

If we did this, would it forefeit our right to receive Runamuck? I suppose we could do it just after Runabout is shipped. I guess that would hurt FunPub some. I'm still surprised that Hasbro hasn't waded in on this debacle.


I'm sticking with the club for the time being; I want Runamuck and hope to get Runabout at some point. (I really wanted Drift at first but only if he comes with the right guns)

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 3:55 am
by Burn
Banjo-Tron wrote:
Sid Burn wrote:TFCC is giving out refunds on their memberships based on the remaining time on your membership

If we did this, would it forefeit our right to receive Runamuck? I suppose we could do it just after Runabout is shipped. I guess that would hurt FunPub some. I'm still surprised that Hasbro hasn't waded in on this debacle.

Realistically the only thing Hasbro needs to do is decide whether to allow FunPub to retain the license for TF's or revoke it.

Hasbro don't really have a need to get involved in this situation, it's not their venture.

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 10:51 am
by Sid Burn
chuckdawg1999 wrote:I'm sticking with the club for the time being; I want Runamuck and hope to get Runabout at some point. (I really wanted Drift at first but only if he comes with the right guns)


this is why FUNPUB probably wont do that much to improve in the future, these exclusives have gone from being a nice addition to a collection, to being necessary to complete the G3 lineup.

TFCC has collectors by the balls with this approach.
(not flaming, I used to be a collector like this)

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:44 pm
by chuckdawg1999
Sid Burn wrote:
chuckdawg1999 wrote:I'm sticking with the club for the time being; I want Runamuck and hope to get Runabout at some point. (I really wanted Drift at first but only if he comes with the right guns)


this is why FUNPUB probably wont do that much to improve in the future, these exclusives have gone from being a nice addition to a collection, to being necessary to complete the G3 lineup.

TFCC has collectors by the balls with this approach.
(not flaming, I used to be a collector like this)


I don't NEED the figure but I'd like to have him. Depending on the QC and what goes down in the next year with the club we'll see if I renew next year. I'd hate for Hasbro to come in and strip everything from FunPub as I think that will mean the end of Joe and Bot Con and the advent of Hasbro con.

Official message from Hasbro to Transformers and G.I. Joe fan communities regarding Fun Publications

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:25 pm
by Seibertron
Here is a message we just received from Hasbro regarding recent situations with Fun Publications, the organization which runs the Transformers Collectors' Club, BotCon (the official Transformers convention), G.I. Joe Collectors' Club, and JoeCon (the official G.I. Joe convention).

Image Image

Hasbro wrote:To the G.I. Joe and Transformers fan communities and Fun Publications customers,

Thank you for bringing your concern to our attention and for giving Hasbro the opportunity to respond to a matter that impacts its G.I. Joe and Transformers brands. Please know we take all consumer concerns very seriously and are in regular contact with Fun Publications (our licensee) about the possibility of a breach in security to their online purchasing system for the G.I. Joe and Transformers Collectors' Clubs. Fun Publications is also taking this matter very seriously and is diligently working at identifying any problems, the number of customers affected and ways to ensure it does not happen to any more customers. Hasbro wants consumers to have a positive experience at all touch points for its brands, including transactions with its licensees. As such, we are confident that Fun Publications has detailed instructions and pertinent information available for those consumers who believe they may have been targeted by credit theft via their portals.

Based on our extensive conversations with the Fun Publications team Hasbro wants to convey the following to the fan communities:

Fun Publications has assured us that they are taking necessary measures to curb additional issues, and they are working with third party experts to identify the problem. They anticipate knowing and communicating the cause of the breach as soon as possible to those affected.

-- They believe that the number of customers affected is low relative to the volume of sales transactions made.

-- However, if you believe fraudulent charges have been made to your credit card after making a purchase with any portals for the G.I. Joe or Transformers Collectors' Clubs, we urge you to contact Fun Publications immediately and provide them with the information requested at <https://www.transformersclub.com/tccccinfo.cfm> or <http://gijoeclub.com/ccinfo.cfm> by using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of these pages.

-- Fun Publications can also be reached at the following number for additional consumer affairs inquiries relating to the G.I. Joe and Transformers Collectors' Clubs at (817) 448-9863 during regular business hours.

-- As more information becomes available, they will be contacting all affected customers who have notified them about the issue.

Thank you again to all of the fans of our Transformers and G.I. Joe brands for their continued support and for the opportunity to respond to this matter.



Sincerely,

Joe Moscone
on behalf of Hasbro, Inc.

Re: Official message from Hasbro to Transformers and G.I. Joe fan communities regarding Fun Publications

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:43 pm
by Delicon
I applaud Hasbro for making a public statement on this matter, although the line below is pretty appalling to me.

Hasbro wrote:-- They believe that the number of customers affected is low relative to the volume of sales transactions made.


If you're talking about the last year, then maybe but since February...YIKES.

Re: Official message from Hasbro to Transformers and G.I. Joe fan communities regarding Fun Publications

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:44 pm
by Jelze Bunnycat
In short, Hasbro is sticking its head in the sand. :lol:

Re: Official message from Hasbro to Transformers and G.I. Joe fan communities regarding Fun Publications

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:01 pm
by Seibertron
Delicon wrote:I applaud Hasbro for making a public statement on this matter, although the line below is pretty appalling to me.

Hasbro wrote:-- They believe that the number of customers affected is low relative to the volume of sales transactions made.


If you're talking about the last year, then maybe but since February...YIKES.


I hope Hasbro understands that that can't be true. It appears all of our account and payment information was stored in a local database. The entire database would have been hacked. Either the hackers would have grabbed all of the info or none of it. It was just sitting out in the open, as far as hackers would be concerned. Anyone who had used a credit card with them in the past few years was affected.

Re: Official message from Hasbro to Transformers and G.I. Joe fan communities regarding Fun Publications

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:09 pm
by RiddlerJ
I demand free toys! :grin:

Re: Official message from Hasbro to Transformers and G.I. Joe fan communities regarding Fun Publications

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:35 pm
by Heavy B
RiddlerJ wrote:I demand free toys! :grin:

I demand a G2 ramjet. Even though no charges were made on my card, and I canceled said card (awaiting a new one...) but damn I want Ramjet

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:40 pm
by Genocide G2.0
Just another message full of whitenoise, give us a free botcon exclusive and it might just take the sting away.....hmmm or would that be another kick in the teeth.

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:42 pm
by Tigertrack
I guess I don't know what I was expecting, but more corporate BS when I had two credit cards tank because of this was not it.

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:44 pm
by madplanet
It is too bad that the whole story is not being shared/told. Still it is bad to hear that ex members were getting hit also.

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:49 pm
by Daggor
Not only does the "not too many were hit" line sting, the Fun Pub logo next to the Hasbro logo amplifies the fact that Fun Pub's logo is terrible. It is an uninspired imitation of the Hasbro logo done in, perhaps, Microsoft Word. Terrible. Unprofessional. Appropriate.

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:08 pm
by Rated X
As much as I love bashing Hasbro, Im gonna side with them on this issue. Even Alcatraz security was breached at one point. Pointing fingers is not important anymore. What is more important is making sure it never happens again. And also to reimburse those who were affected. Maybe a free years membership would be appropiate. It's not like every time somebody hacks people's info from a gas pump or ATM machine do you get an official company statement. Life goes on... >:oP

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:17 pm
by Tigertrack
Rated X wrote:As much as I love bashing Hasbro, Im gonna side with them on this issue. Even Alcatraz security was breached at one point. Pointing fingers is not important anymore. What is more important is making sure it never happens again. And also to reimburse those who were affected. Maybe a free years membership would be appropiate. It's not like every time somebody hacks a gas pump or ATM do you get an official company statement. Life goes on... >:oP


So SONY was not issuing all kinds of warnings and public statements when they got jacked? I think they were.

One years membership $40, credit card fraud charges $4000. Hmmm... Not that most cc companies won't remove the charges if you can prove that it is fraud. If they won't you should get a new card.

Moving on for some after this is easy. For others whose finances are a but more crunched...not so much.

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:23 pm
by Kibble
I think the Club should give their customers the same thing TFsource did after their multiple fiascoes... >:oP

Re: Official message from Hasbro to Transformers and G.I. Joe fan communities regarding Fun Publications

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:37 pm
by AutobotCliffjumper
Hasbro wrote:-- They believe that the number of customers affected is low relative to the volume of sales transactions made.


Seriously? Pull your heads out of the sand! Plenty of people got hit. It's unbelievable that the amount of customers affected were "low". Poppycock! :-x

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:49 pm
by Seibertron
tigertracks 24 wrote:
Rated X wrote:As much as I love bashing Hasbro, Im gonna side with them on this issue. Even Alcatraz security was breached at one point. Pointing fingers is not important anymore. What is more important is making sure it never happens again. And also to reimburse those who were affected. Maybe a free years membership would be appropiate. It's not like every time somebody hacks a gas pump or ATM do you get an official company statement. Life goes on... >:oP


So SONY was not issuing all kinds of warnings and public statements when they got jacked? I think they were.

One years membership $40, credit card fraud charges $4000. Hmmm... Not that most cc companies won't remove the charges if you can prove that it is fraud. If they won't you should get a new card.

Moving on for some after this is easy. For others whose finances are a but more crunched...not so much.


It's not about whether or not other companies have had similar issues. One of the major problems with all of this is that simple steps were not taken to protect our information. It was due to their negligence that this happened. Our passwords weren't even protected ... that's some pretty basic stuff right there. If care couldn't be had to protect our passwords, how could we expect that our credit card information was protected. The fandom has complained about the late 1990s style website for quite some time ... this was the consequence of their website not being updated properly circa 2006 to use modern standards and modern requirements that the credit card companies have in order to be PCI compliant.

Big companies get hacked because they are big targets. I'd imagine the hackers who gained entrance to the systems that huge companies like iTunes and Sony use are hackers on the cutting edge of figuring out where security holes are. Big companies such as those two most likely do not have our passwords just sitting around unencrypted and they are most likely PCI Compliant. Comparing what happened due to the negligence of Fun Pub is apples and oranges to what has happened to the larger companies.

Even your passwords on Seibertron.com are encrypted ... there's no way for me to decrypt the passwords here.

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:51 pm
by Seibertron
Kibble wrote:I think the Club should give their customers the same thing TFsource did after their multiple fiascoes... >:oP


Have any of you considered that TFsource only had one situation. From what I understood, the second situation was never actually tied to TFsource. Perhaps the second issue which people assumed came from TFsource actually came from another source that we all regularly use.

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:52 pm
by Rated X
tigertracks 24 wrote:
Rated X wrote:As much as I love bashing Hasbro, Im gonna side with them on this issue. Even Alcatraz security was breached at one point. Pointing fingers is not important anymore. What is more important is making sure it never happens again. And also to reimburse those who were affected. Maybe a free years membership would be appropiate. It's not like every time somebody hacks a gas pump or ATM do you get an official company statement. Life goes on... >:oP


So SONY was not issuing all kinds of warnings and public statements when they got jacked? I think they were.

One years membership $40, credit card fraud charges $4000. Hmmm... Not that most cc companies won't remove the charges if you can prove that it is fraud. If they won't you should get a new card.

Moving on for some after this is easy. For others whose finances are a but more crunched...not so much.


All Im saying is credit card fraud happens every day. You discover it, report the charges to your company and get them removed, and get a new card. That's the credit card companies job. They take the hit. They make billions in interest on people who cant pay their bills in full. What else can Hasbro and Funpub do except issue a statement and request information to help track down the theif ? But It seems Transformer fans are expecting a free handout. Thats why I suggested a years membership free. $40 bucks is more than enough reimbursment for making a few annoying phone calls and cancelling a card.

If you write your own checks and review your monthly balance before you pay, any fradulaunt charge should be detected and removed before any hassle. If you pay $4000 in charges and then review your statement after you paid, youre fault. That's why I dont authorize my bank to make any automatic payments. It's not the banks job to catch fake charges, it's mine.

Re: TF Community Warning: Check your Credit and Debit Card accounts for recent fraudulent activity

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 3:09 pm
by Joetx
I've twice ordered merchandise from Fun Publications, yet my credit card info was stolen & I had to cancel my account.

This happened despite me not checking the option of storing my credit card info on the website.