Miami-Dade County Facing FACTA Class Action Lawsuit

After receiving a FACTA-noncompliant receipt from Miami-Dade county after a Florida woman paid a traffic ticket, the Florida county was hit with FACTA class action lawsuit.

Plaintiff Nataly C. was issued a receipt for her transaction that included 10 digits of her 16 digit credit card number, including the first four and last six digits.

According to Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), customer receipts may only include the last 5 digits of the credit card number.

Nataly’s complaint read, “Despite having had direct notice of the requirements of FACTA for nearly a decade, defendants willfully and/or recklessly ignored and failed to comply with FACTA’s truncation requirement by printing more than the last five digits of the card numbers on receipts provided to plaintiff and all other cardholders, uniformly burdening each of them with an elevated risk of identity theft.”

Nataly believes the county and the credit card company had knowledge of FACTA requirements because they did truncate some information on the receipt but it was not done correctly, only leaving the last five digits of her credit card number.

The more numbers that are provided on customer credit card receipts, the easier it is for identity thieves to figure out card numbers. In this case, the potential thieves would only have to figure out six of the sixteen digits; this would not be too hard for an experienced thief using mathematical modeling to generate the other possible digits of Nataly’s card.

Nataly and the class have requested relief in the form of $1,000 in statutory damages for each willful FACTA violation, punitive damages, legal fees and prohibition of future violations by Miami-Dade County.

The FACTA Lawsuit is Nataly C.L. v. Miami-Dade County et al., Case No. 1:15-cv-22943 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

The Facts about FACTA

FACTA, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, was enacted in 2003. Under the act, consumers were promised additional protection of their personal information on credit card and debit card receipts.

Before FACTA, many businesses often printed the entire credit card number on the receipt, along with the expiration date, and handed it to the customer. This information was an open invitation to identity thieves. Many consumers didn’t think twice about tossing receipts in the trash, or leaving their copy of the receipt at a restaurant where it was tossed out. Of course, receipts can also easily be lost.

Merchants had until 2006 to be compliant with the law. In terms of receipts, information must be truncated as follows:

• Only the last five digits of the debit card or credit card are allowed to appear on the receipt.
• The expiration date must not be printed on the receipt. It must contain asterisks or be omitted entirely.

An example of how a receipt might look is like this:

Acct. #: **********12345

Exp: **/**

FACTA Compliance Lawsuit Information

If you have received a customer copy of a debit card or credit card receipt listing more than the last five digits of your account number, or lists any part of your expiration date, you may have be entitled to legal compensation. An experienced attorney can review your case at no cost or obligation to you and advise you if you are able to file a lawsuit or join a consumer class action.

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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