FACTA Enforces Identity Protection Rules For Credit Card Information

FACTA, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, works to enforce identity protection rules regulating consumers’ debit and credit card information.

The specifics of FACTA law are often unknown to consumers on the whole, but simply understanding these basic identity protection rules can make a huge difference for consumers and businesses alike.

Indeed, for consumers, knowing about these identity protection rules and checking that businesses are enforcing them can mean the difference between suffering from identity theft and fraud or not.

Businesses that strictly follow FACTA’s identity protection rules are better able to protect their customers and, in turn, protect themselves from FACTA violation penalties.

Consumers who report violations of FACTA’s identity protection rules may even be eligible for some financial award.

FACTA Background

The identity protection rules provided by FACTA, or the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, have been fully in place since 2006, after first being passed in 2003.

FACTA identity protection rules are meant to prevent credit card and debit card information from falling into the hands of those who will use it for identity theft and fraud, which can be extremely harmful for consumers and complicated to fix, even if it is caught quickly.

FACTA Identity Protection Rules

FACTA requires that businesses follow specific truncation requirements to censor the credit card information printed on their customers’ receipts. If these rules are not followed exactly, businesses have committed a FACTA violation and may be penalized.

FACTA identity protection rules require that only the last five digits of a credit or debit card number may be displayed on receipts. The rest of the digits must be censored. This is often done with asterisks, like this:

**** **** ***1 2345

Receipts which display digits from anywhere else in the card number, even if there are five or fewer displayed, violate FACTA rules. This means that this:

1234 5*** **** ****

and even this:

1*** **** **** ****

are not acceptable methods of truncation.

Since credit card numbers are split into four-digit segments, many businesses will choose to censor everything except the last four digits, like this:

**** **** **** 2345

Displaying fewer than five digits is acceptable according to FACTA identity protection rules, provided those numbers are found in the last five digits of a card’s number.

Not only can finding and reporting violations of FACTA identity protection rules help protect your own information, but may also protect the information of thousands of other customers who may have been affected by the same company’s FACTA violations.

FACTA identity protection rules also prohibit businesses from printing any portion of a card’s expiration date. Expiration dates should appear like this:

**/****

FACTA Lawsuits

FACTA offers awards of up to $1,000 per violation of FACTA identity protection rules. This award is from the FACTA violation itself, and does not require having actually been injured by identity theft or another problem.

Any machine-printed receipts are subject to these FACTA identity protection rules.

In many cases, one machine that does not comply with FACTA law can affect hundreds or even thousands of customers at one time. This means that if you notice a FACTA violation on your own receipt, reporting it can lead to better protection for all others who have receipts from that business.

Large businesses who have printed thousands of FACTA non-compliant receipts may be heavily penalized for the transgression, given that each violation may cost them up to $1,000.

Proving that a business violated FACTA law is fairly simple. Take note of whether or not your receipts follow FACTA regulations for both card numbers and expiration dates. If they do not, then you may file a FACTA lawsuit against the business at fault.

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.

Get Started