Dive Brief:
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A group of customers Jan. 9 filed a class-action suit in a New Jersey federal court against J. Crew Group Inc. for improperly displaying credit-card information on store receipts.
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The retailer has repeatedly featured more than five digits of credit-card account numbers, violating the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), according to lead plaintiff Ahmed Kamal.
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Kamal said he shopped at a few different J. Crew stores in December and was presented with receipts that each showed the first five and last four digits of his Discover card account number.
Dive Insight:
J. Crew has not commented on this lawsuit, but the details, if true, are damning in an era when retailers are battling sophisticated data thieves. FACTA was enacted in 2003, bolstering identity-theft protections for consumers. The law prohibits retailers from displaying more than five credit-card digits, unless it’s a handwritten transaction.
If a retailer consistently prints out receipts with more than that, it’s not just an invitation to wily thieves, but also a signal to consumers that the business is not all that concerned about data protection.