FACTA Violations Lead to Identity Theft, Class Action Lawsuits

If you’ve made purchases and the retailer printed more than the last 5 digits of your debit or credit card number or expiration date on your receipt, your rights have been violated under federal law and you may be able to obtain compensation even if you did not suffer any harm as a result.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, also known as FACTA, mandates that merchants follow specific rules to help protect U.S. consumers from identity theft or credit card fraud. The law is intended to guard against a thief being able to piece together credit card or debit card information from a customer’s receipt.

There are two ways that merchants can violate FACTA:

1. Including any portion of the expiration date on the customer receipt.
2. Including any numbers other than the last 5 digits of your credit card or debit card number on the customer receipt.

If you have received a receipt with either type of violation, you may be eligible to join a free FACTA debit/credit card receipt class action lawsuit against merchants who didn’t take appropriate measures to protect your financial information. Fill out the form now to join!

Overview: Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act

Congress passed FACTA in 2003 as part of an effort to curtail the growing problem of identity theft.

FACTA restricts the amount of information that may be shown on debit card and credit card receipts. This is done by masking or hiding the numbers with symbols such as * or # on a receipt, so that the cardholder’s information is not revealed.

This process, also called truncation, is not always done properly by merchants, which can potentially expose customers to credit card fraud and identity theft.

FACTA specifically states:

“no person that accepts credit cards or debit cards for the transaction of business shall print more than the last 5 digits of the card number or the expiration date upon any receipt provided to the cardholder at the point of the sale or transaction.”

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act applies to all electronically printed customer receipts such as those printed by cash registers, self-service kiosks, and those provided to customers at restaurants.

Consumers have the right to file a lawsuit and obtain recovery if a merchant is in willful or negligent violation of this federal consumer protection law.

Examples of Expiration Date Violations

A merchant may not print the expiration date of your credit card or debit card anywhere on your receipt. For example, if the expiration date of your credit card is March 2017, violations may show up in a variety of ways, including:

Example 1: EXP: 03/17

Example 2: EXP: 03/2017

Example 3: EXP: 032017

Example 4: EXP: 0317

Example 5: Expires: 0317

Example 6: Exp Date: 03/17

Example 7: Exp Date: 03/31/17

Example 8: EXPIRY: 03/17

Example 9: 03/17

Example 10: 0317

Example 11: Exp. Date 03/**

Example 12: EXP. **/17

As shown above, a merchant can violate FACTA even if it shows just part of the expiration date.

Examples of Credit Card and Debit Card Number Violations

FACTA does not allow retailers to print more than the last 5 digits of your debit or credit card number on your printed receipt. Printing any digits that are not within the last 5 numbers qualifies as a FACTA violation.

For example, if your credit card or debit card number is 1111-2222-3333-4444, there are several ways a violation may appear:

Example 1: 11** **** **** 4444

Example 2: **** **22 **** 4444

Example 3: **** **** **33 ****

As shown above, a FACTA violation may occur even if there are fewer than 5 digits printed, if they are not the last 5 digits.

Free FACTA Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you made one or more purchases and the retailer provided you with a receipt that contained more than the last five digits of your credit or debit card number or the expiration date, you may be eligible for a free class action lawsuit investigation and to pursue compensation for these FACTA violations.

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