New safeguards for your credit card number

Losing a credit card receipt with your full account number and expiration date on it can be just as hazardous to your financial health as losing a credit card.

Anyone who picks up the stray receipt can pretty much go on a shopping spree.

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A new law in California aims to change that by removing expiration dates and most account numbers from sales slips.

"Truncating these numbers is an absolutely wonderful step," says Linda Foley, director of the Identity Theft Resource Center. "Anything we can do to protect these numbers is important."

Hiding the numbers
California sales receipts will list only the last five digits of a customer's credit card account number and no expiration date.

As of Jan. 1, all new cash registers and point-of-sale terminals in California must print these safeguarded receipts. Merchants have until Jan. 1, 2004 to phase out any registers or terminals that print full account numbers on receipts.

Washington State has passed a similar law that will take effect this July. Maryland is developing a law that would ban sales slips from listing more than the last four digits of credit account number. Experts expect other states to pass similar laws in the coming months.

Taking out the garbage thieves
"Right now it will be each state going and figuring out that this is best for the consumers. To save folks from dumpster diggers," says Eric Nelson, director of product management and delivery services at First Data.

Dumpster diggers are thieves who sift through people's garbage in search of bank statements, brokerage statements, pre-approved credit card offers -- anything that they could use to swipe someone's identity and commit fraud. One little credit card receipt is all a thief needs to go on a spending spree.

"The telephone and the Internet give them almost a cloak of invisibility," Foley says.

Thieves also prowl malls looking for stray sales slips and swipe receipts out of shopping bags. Often the victim has no idea anything is wrong until their monthly credit card bill arrives.

"It's a very, very easy crime to commit with little to no risk of being apprehended," says Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

And that's why consumer advocates want state and federal legislators to follow California's lead and safeguard credit card sales receipts.

Sometimes the simplest ideas ...
"It's a simple, straightforward way of addressing the problem," says Shelley Curran, a policy analyst at Consumers Union in San Francisco.

Several major gas stations already truncate account numbers on sales receipts. First Data's Nelson said making the switch from credit card receipts with 16-digit account numbers and expiration dates to credit card receipts that list just four or five account digits is not difficult.

"It's mostly a software change," Nelson says.

Until all credit card receipts stop listing full account numbers and expiration dates, consumers need to be on guard.

Mind those sales receipts. Put them in a safe spot until your credit card bills arrive. When it's time to discard receipts, be sure to shred them.

Ditto for bank and brokerage statements and credit card bills, anything that lists personal financial information. Shred every one of these documents before dumping them in the trash.

"The bottom line is it's not paranoia. We all have to become security consultants for ourselves," Foley says. "We have to take a hard look at our daily lives."