I am going to be perfectly honest here and tell you that ever since I heard about the massive security breach at Target, I've been sticking my head in the sand about it because I just don't want to deal with it, but I have to–many of us have to. Up to 40 million credit and debit card numbers of Target shoppers during the period of November 27 through December 15 were hacked. Basically, that translates to one in seven Americans and if you further reduce that to just the number of people who shopped at Target during that time period and used a card to pay … Well, let's just say that if you are one of those peeps then the chances are pretty darned high your info was hacked. Sigh. I totally shopped there during that period and I always use a credit card or debit card to pay at Target. So what do I, I mean we need to know and do to minimize the damage?
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If you are wondering how the information thieves were able to do this, you'll have to keep wondering. Investigators still don't know. I can tell you that Target says, the problem has been "identified and resolved." Okay, that's good, but quite a bit of damage has already been done, so what if you were one of the folks that shopped at target during the breach?
- Keep an eye on all your credit and debit card activity. If you want to be extra careful, you can cancel your current card and order a new one.
- If you do find suspicious activity on your cards, report the fraudulent activity, like right NOW!
- Do not freak out that your entire identity might be stolen. The only thing the thieves got was the info on the magnetic strip of cards. That info does not include your Social Security number, address, or phone number.
- From now on, if you are not going to shop with cash, it is best to use credit versus debit because the charges are disputable and thieves don't get direct access to your bank account.
I've checked my records and so far everything on there seems to be purchases I've made myself. Keeping my fingers crossed. I hope you aren't having any problems either. Keep my fingers crossed for you too.
Image via Thinkstock
