The Credit Line: Michaels Stores Breach, Credit Card Marketing to Kids

Tune in to this week’s installment of Credit Line Radio, hosted by Credit.com’s chairman and co-founder Adam Levin on Los Angeles’ KFWB 980 AM this Saturday, May 21, at 9 a.m. PST/Noon EST.

The show is co-hosted by L.A. radio personality Jeff Levy.

The Michaels Stores Debit Fraud Mess

Is shopping with a debit card safe anymore? Arts and crafts retail giant Michaels says its customers are the latest victims of a Pin Pad scheme. The Texas-based company says thieves collected customer debit-card data by altering the devices that they use to swipe their cards. The thieves stole personal-identification numbers, created duplicate cards and withdrew cash from customer bank accounts. We’ll talk to a Michaels customer who suspects her PIN was stolen.

The Debt Ceiling and You!

The United States has reached its debt ceiling, but what does that really mean, and how does it effect average Americans. More importantly, our national debt ceiling is likely to rise in the near future, but why don’t you and I get to raise ours when we’ve maxed out our credit? We’ll talk to ABC News Senior Business Producer Daniel Arnall about it and take your questions too.

[Related Article: U.S. Maxes Out Its Credit]

Debit Fee Rule Delays

The National Association of Federal Credit Unions sent a letter Monday to Senate leaders urging them to support a bill that would delay the start of the proposed debit-fee rule, which is scheduled to take effect in July. The letter cited comments from John Menzer, chief executive of Michaels, who encouraged customers to consult their banks if they were concerned about unauthorized charges.

Obama’s Data Breach Legislation

The Obama administration has proposed a new law that would require companies to notify consumers and the federal government about data breaches that could expose people to identity theft. The proposal keeps the current definition of sensitive personally identifiable information as someone’s name and Social Security number. But some privacy experts have said that the definition fails to take into account things like email addresses, usernames and geo-location data, which can help thieves steal identities.

[Related Article: Obama Proposes New Rule for Data Breaches]

Beauty Queen Charged With Identity Theft

If you thought ID theft was limited to big box stores, think again. Miss Wisconsin USA forfeited her crown and resigned from the Miss USA beauty pageant after being charged with identity theft. The allegations arise from a summer job selling ads. Three business owners in the Madison, Wisconsin, area told police someone had forged their signatures on contracts to buy advertisements in Homepages, a local business directory.

Credit Card Companies Targeting Your Kids

Are credit card companies collecting your child’s information so they can market to them once they turn 18? Credit.com’s credit card expert Beverly Harzog reveals how she caught marketers doing just that when she recently received an offer for an alias her college-age daughter created for an online kids community 9 years prior.

Listen to the show:

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Listen Live: The Credit Line streams live here every Saturday at 9 a.m. PST/Noon EST, and repeats on Sundays at 11 p.m. PST/ 2 a.m. EST.
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