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Over the weekend you may have heard about the exposure of credit card numbers of some members using Blippy, a social networking service that lets people share their credit card purchases online. On Friday, reports began to surface that actual credit card numbers, not just transaction updates, were available for anyone to see on cached pages of Google search results. The numbers had been online since February. The startup company has since worked with Google to get the numbers removed from Google's cache. You can read more about the snafu here: blog.blippy.com.
When credit card info is exposed
The exposure of credit card information is certainly alarming if you're the one affected, not to mention embarrassing for Blippy in this particular case, but the potential damage is very limited. The worst someone could do with your credit card or credit card data is go on a shopping spree. Exposure of your Social Security number is far more worrisome, since a criminal could use it to open up accounts in your name.
As long as you report the loss of your card, federal law limits your liability to $50. If you report the loss before the thief hits the stores, then you lose nothing. In addition, many cards offer zero fraud liability.
No matter how publicly your credit card information is exposed, the path to dealing with it is the same. Report the incident to your card issuer to limit liability.
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