Marketing company leaks thousands of credit card numbers

[Hydrogen]

More than 400,000 phone call recordings that include names, addresses, phone numbers and credit card information have been leaked online by Florida marketing company VICI Marketing following suspected security blunders.

The 28GB database was publicly-accessible and included recordings of inbound and outbound phone calls.

While most of the audio appears to be linked clearly to VICI Marketing, some do not mention the company's name in the recordings.

Researchers at Cologne-based MacKeeper found and reported the breach, then lambasted the Florida firm for the gaffe.

"There is enough information in each call to provide cyber criminals with all they need to steal the credit card information or commit a wide range of crimes," researchers says in a disclosure post.

"There is no suspected wrongdoing at this time other than leaking as many as 17,649 audio recordings with credit card numbers and private customer files."

More than 17,000 of the calls contained financial information.

The database was secured on Thursday but it is not known how long the data has been exposed.

MacKeeper notes some of the recordings do not warn customers that the calls are being recorded or stored, which could be a breach of law should the calls have involved people based in 11 US states where laws mandate consent before recordings can be captured.

The security flub follows a 2008 ruling against the company after it was discovered it had used stolen customer data. The company was found to have failed to validate the provenance of its data sources.

MacKeeper too has had security failings. In December 2015 it exposed a database of 13 million users including their names, email addresses, and weakly-protected passwords.

The software has long-since been regarded an unnecessary irritant for its deliberately confusing pop-up advertising. ®

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/30/firm_that_leaked_13m_records_laughs_at_firm_that_leaked_400k_records/

 

Some ask what advantages bitcoin and crypto have over credit cards, paypal & traditional payment services.

Here's one example.

As far as I know, this would never happen with bitcoin.

[OmegaStarScream]

Well , I don't see much of a difference because If we think logically , bitcoin users actually use their credit cards and their real information's on Coinbase , Circle and other services so they also can be leaked. But yes , If services only asked for bitcoin addresses instead of credit card numbers , these issues wouldn't exist .

[shinratensei_]

More than 400,000 phone call recordings that include names, addresses, phone numbers and credit card information have been leaked online by Florida marketing company VICI Marketing following suspected security blunders.

The 28GB database was publicly-accessible and included recordings of inbound and outbound phone calls.

While most of the audio appears to be linked clearly to VICI Marketing, some do not mention the company's name in the recordings.

Researchers at Cologne-based MacKeeper found and reported the breach, then lambasted the Florida firm for the gaffe.

"There is enough information in each call to provide cyber criminals with all they need to steal the credit card information or commit a wide range of crimes," researchers says in a disclosure post.

"There is no suspected wrongdoing at this time other than leaking as many as 17,649 audio recordings with credit card numbers and private customer files."

More than 17,000 of the calls contained financial information.

The database was secured on Thursday but it is not known how long the data has been exposed.

MacKeeper notes some of the recordings do not warn customers that the calls are being recorded or stored, which could be a breach of law should the calls have involved people based in 11 US states where laws mandate consent before recordings can be captured.

The security flub follows a 2008 ruling against the company after it was discovered it had used stolen customer data. The company was found to have failed to validate the provenance of its data sources.

MacKeeper too has had security failings. In December 2015 it exposed a database of 13 million users including their names, email addresses, and weakly-protected passwords.

The software has long-since been regarded an unnecessary irritant for its deliberately confusing pop-up advertising. ®

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/30/firm_that_leaked_13m_records_laughs_at_firm_that_leaked_400k_records/

 

Some ask what advantages bitcoin and crypto have over credit cards, paypal & traditional payment services.

Here's one example.

As far as I know, this would never happen with bitcoin.

Mtgox, bitfinex what about such story. What the difference? You may bolding it caused by the 3rd parties or firm. Their CC was not getting published at least if the firm isn't being abuser.

[LeGaulois]

Undirectly,Bitcoin is not safe from such incidents.

Take as exemple the web based wallets. There is a high percentage of people using such wallet. Any of them could have any security problem. The problem could be easily bigger than this one. Same could happen to any exchangers. Unfortunetly cyber security is a real problem now and it is not always a big priority for a lot of companies.

Every 6-12 months you can see such news in medias. But it is just an iceberg, if you visit the blogs related to security you can read such news every months.

[Kakmakr]

You can have all the security in the world, but the weak point in every organization is it's employees. People can be bribed, threatened, suckered by social engineered methods to reveal sensitive information. So the companies & merchants accepting credit cards, will always be a target for crimes like this.

Bitcoin has it's own problems, and most of these problems are also linked to human interaction and software breached, due to compromised code. ^hmmmmmm^

[disconnectme]

There is no real advantage that BTC have over them as long as the exchanges stick to KYC and AML policy. If coinbase didn't have customers information in the first place government won't be asking for it, but we can also argue this is exchange dependent.

[cryp24x]

There is no real advantage that BTC have over them as long as the exchanges stick to KYC and AML policy. If coinbase didn't have customers information in the first place government won't be asking for it, but we can also argue this is exchange dependent.

I agree as long a bitcoin need to pass thru a third party company, there is not much of a difference.  The security of the account details is still in that company's hand.  We just do the thing as trusting the company and hope that they do not give out our information. LOL.

[Dudeperfect]

It's really shocking news, Saving credit card information on such sites is like stacking entire rites to spend our funds. I don't think it's 100% impossible to leak the private keys in case of bitcoin if it is stored in web wallets or generated with unsecured paper wallet generators. We have seen hacked exchanges and the loss of bitcoins so it's is possible to hack any exchange or wallet service provider if there is a lack of security or if there is any vulnerable bug.

[Wendigo]

Some ask what advantages bitcoin and crypto have over credit cards, paypal & traditional payment services.

Here's one example.

As far as I know, this would never happen with bitcoin.

Tell that to all the people who have lost money in the past and future hacking accidents happening at the 'impenetrable fortresses' that online Bitcoin financial websites are 

[robelneo]

This is the reason why Bitcoin is now popular and many users and company are slowly adopting it,but Bitcoin is not also safe,coinbase will ask you to verify your account before you can transact with Bitcoin,and if there's a leak on their site chances are your information will also be leaked.

[NorrisK]

There is no real advantage that BTC have over them as long as the exchanges stick to KYC and AML policy. If coinbase didn't have customers information in the first place government won't be asking for it, but we can also argue this is exchange dependent.

The problem is that more and more exchanges are going to have to adhere to such regulations. There is very little to be done about that, unless you want to do business with companies in "obscure" countries.

Decentralized services are another option ofcourse, but at one point along the line, you will probably need either A) fiat or B) goods or C) services delivered to you, and this still exposes your identity.

[Catmony]

As far as I know, this would never happen with bitcoin.

Yes this will never happen if you are using electrum or bitcoin core wallet, but if you are using coinbase, xapo like regulated web wallets than all of your personal details are available to every government whenever they need it. 

[erpbridge]

This has already been happening with bitcoin. Almost every other use case of bitcoin involves it going through an exchange or storing it on an online site. Any leaking of data or hack is equivalent to your bitcoin being compromised. However, if your cc info gets stolen, the company offers you protection against it.

[mobnepal]

This has already been happening with bitcoin. Almost every other use case of bitcoin involves it going through an exchange or storing it on an online site. Any leaking of data or hack is equivalent to your bitcoin being compromised. However, if your cc info gets stolen, the company offers you protection against it.

However other than some regulated bitcoin platform/exchanges, bitcoin accepted platform don't ask much of the personal details to comply with KYC policy. And also in most of these platforms if you have enabled 2fa, even if someone logged into your account can't just run away with your bitcoin which is not a case when cc info with security code get leaked.

Carding industry is one of the biggest dark market on the internet.

[Harlot]

We can see is its not the users fault but the company. For me Bitcoin users tend to lose their assets (Bitcoin) on their own from being entice with gambling to being blinded by easy money woth so called HYIPs. All we now hope is that they are insured on what they will lose in paying those customers back.

[xuan87]

This has already been happening with bitcoin. Almost every other use case of bitcoin involves it going through an exchange or storing it on an online site. Any leaking of data or hack is equivalent to your bitcoin being compromised. However, if your cc info gets stolen, the company offers you protection against it.

Yes, It is true, however for bitcoin wallet there is very little case about it, and don't store your coin on exchange site, and in the future when you can purchase every thing using bitcoin then we don't need to be afraid of identity theft because we don't need to convert it to fiat, so we don't need any identity anymore, and  let say if you are the only one get hacked will the cc company give you protection? I don't think it will

[SyGambler]

Well , I don't see much of a difference because If we think logically , bitcoin users actually use their credit cards and their real information's on Coinbase , Circle and other services so they also can be leaked. But yes , If services only asked for bitcoin addresses instead of credit card numbers , these issues wouldn't exist .

then people should stop using them , personally I haven't used any site that requests documents
we all should start buying and selling p2p , the currency exchange section here can be really helpful if you don't want to use coinbase or circle

[manselr]

Well , I don't see much of a difference because If we think logically , bitcoin users actually use their credit cards and their real information's on Coinbase , Circle and other services so they also can be leaked. But yes , If services only asked for bitcoin addresses instead of credit card numbers , these issues wouldn't exist .

then people should stop using them , personally I haven't used any site that requests documents
we all should start buying and selling p2p , the currency exchange section here can be really helpful if you don't want to use coinbase or circle

People like to speculate in the markets, so we need exchanges. p2p marketplaces aren't useful for speculation, so people will always use poloniex or whatever else is available.

Until the day we have a decentralized poloniex type exchange we will never get rid of centralized points of failure like the current exchanges.

[Xester]

More than 400,000 phone call recordings that include names, addresses, phone numbers and credit card information have been leaked online by Florida marketing company VICI Marketing following suspected security blunders.

The 28GB database was publicly-accessible and included recordings of inbound and outbound phone calls.

While most of the audio appears to be linked clearly to VICI Marketing, some do not mention the company's name in the recordings.

Researchers at Cologne-based MacKeeper found and reported the breach, then lambasted the Florida firm for the gaffe.

"There is enough information in each call to provide cyber criminals with all they need to steal the credit card information or commit a wide range of crimes," researchers says in a disclosure post.

"There is no suspected wrongdoing at this time other than leaking as many as 17,649 audio recordings with credit card numbers and private customer files."

More than 17,000 of the calls contained financial information.

The database was secured on Thursday but it is not known how long the data has been exposed.

MacKeeper notes some of the recordings do not warn customers that the calls are being recorded or stored, which could be a breach of law should the calls have involved people based in 11 US states where laws mandate consent before recordings can be captured.

The security flub follows a 2008 ruling against the company after it was discovered it had used stolen customer data. The company was found to have failed to validate the provenance of its data sources.

MacKeeper too has had security failings. In December 2015 it exposed a database of 13 million users including their names, email addresses, and weakly-protected passwords.

The software has long-since been regarded an unnecessary irritant for its deliberately confusing pop-up advertising. ®

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/30/firm_that_leaked_13m_records_laughs_at_firm_that_leaked_400k_records/

 

Some ask what advantages bitcoin and crypto have over credit cards, paypal & traditional payment services.

Here's one example.

As far as I know, this would never happen with bitcoin.

That could never happen to bitcoin users if the users doesnt use hosted web wallets that requires personal information from the users. If information  was leaked from a credit card company that will also be possible to web wallet host sites. Aside from that hackers may also extract information from that sites or take the bitcoin from the wallets.

[danherbias07]

It could if you are using a website wallet. One more is by opening your account in a computer rental. Those are just the things for now. A hacking tool also that could get your account name and password but still that will be under "website wallets" which you are going online to type everything. Credit cards have a lot of flaws and they can be used without the ID of the real owner that is why it is easy to get it also which are offered just in the streets.