Here's an interesting fact in Here's a different kind of rewards card, instead furthering more material consumption, the Last Sunday's 60 minutes had a report by Lesley Stahl about the now-infamous TJX data breach.

The most interesting conversation was between Stahl and a representative from the National Retail Federation, who placed the blame for lax store security on the credit card companies:
"Is there growing tension between the two sides now?" Stahl asks Dave Hogan, who handles computer technology at the National Retail Federation.

"Lesley, absolutely, there's growing tension between the two sides," he replies.

Hogan says credit card companies should change how they do business. "If we could just force Visa and MasterCard to not require retailers to store credit card data, this issue would disappear overnight," he argues.

Hogan says card companies force retailers to store customer data in case there are charge disputes. He thinks the card companies should hold the data, not the stores.

"Honestly, we can eliminate this problem within a few days," Hogan says.

"If it's that easy, why hasn't it been done?" Stahl asks.

"I'm not too sure how vested the credit companies are as far as securing customers' data," Hogan says.

"And you're saying that the credit card companies are the one's who are not security conscious?" Stahl asks.

"In my humble opinion, no," Hogan replies.

He accuses the card companies of using this issue as a way to make money. Visa, for example, has started fining large chains that do not have up-to-date security $25,000 a month.

"If you do the math on it, this could be a windfall of $200 million annually for the credit card companies as far as a revenue stream," Hogan says.

Visa chose not to respond. Hmmmmm.

The report also had some interesting emails from inside TJX, proving that they did, in fact, know that their wireless encryption was out-of-date and easy to crack. If you're the paranoid-about-credit-type you might want to avoid watching this report. Those who enjoy watching Lesley Stahl learn about WEP and WPA while driving around in a van with a lovable nerd should head on over. She's so cute!

Brandon writes:"In January 2007, I was traveling in Mexico and was mugged, having my wallet and passport stolen. By the time I got back to the hotel and began calling my credit card companies to cancel, the criminal had charged close to $3,000 on my CHASE Circuit City Visa card. I explained to CHASE that the charges were fraud, and they sent me a fraudulent charge affidavit to complete and have notarized. As I couldn't take care of this until I returned from my trip, and had more important things like a passport to worry about, I waited a few weeks before completing the paperwork and during those weeks received about 2 calls a day from CHASE urging me to send the documents."

I completed it and sent it certified mail along with a copy of the police report, the certified mail was delivered and signed for but the calls continued, apparently they never received it. About a month later when I finally had time, I made copies and resent everything to CHASE, finally the calls stopped.

I took this to mean that the documents had been received and that everything was taken care of, hardly the case.

I canceled the card as I never use it, so I no longer had access to the online payment system and could not check up on the balance, and so I let it go figuring everything had finally gone right.

About 3 months later I begin getting the same 2-3 calls a day from CHASE, this time demanding that I pay the $3,000 plus over $100.00 in interest and that my account is very past due.. The messages say to reach Norm at so-and-so extension as he is handling my case. I call, get voicemail, leave a message and never hear back about 3 times.

The calls keep coming and I finally give up, not having time to deal with the situation I begin hanging up every time I see the number on my caller ID.

Shortly after that, my account was referred to CCS collection agency for breach of contract, I was contacted by CCS agent Terry Orr who was actually very nice, explained the whole situation, listened to what I had to say, and told me to fax his office the same documents that I had mailed to CHASE months prior. After receiving the documents, I received a very friendly follow-up call saying that they had determined that the balance was fraud and would refer the case back to CHASE and they had no control over what chase would do with that ruling.

It has now been about two weeks and the 2-3x a day calls have resumed from CHASE again, what can I do in this situation, this is bordering on harassment as far as I'm concerned, haven't a met a decent enough burden of proof that the charges were fraud.

Thank You,

Brendon L.That just makes no sense. You called and reported the fraud the day of, and yet they're still trying to collect. Under federal law, you have no responsibility for unauthorized charges after reporting loss or theft of a credit card. That you waited a few weeks to send in the papers doesn't matter. Worst case scenario, your maximum liability is $50.

Have you sent them a "drop-dead" letter? Or a letter of dispute? Include the information in the preceding paragraph in your letter.

You could also try kicking it up to Chase executive customer service:

1-888-622-7547 - extension 4350
or
847-488-6833, or 888-622-7547 x 6833 - Jessica Pozehl

(Photo: Getty)

Chase Changes Due Date Without Warning, Char