Update from the G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club in regards to credit card issues

by generalsjoes | Feb 24, 2012 | G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe Collectors Club

In the minds of many fans over recent days “no news” wasn’t good news when it came to questions about the G.I. Joe/Transformers Collectors’ Club and the potential for credit card security issues.  Over the past month or so, many fans have come forward who used their credit cards with Fun Publications’ online store, finding that fraudulant charges have appeared on their cards.

Well the online store has been shut down for a few days, and today, Brian Savage from the Club has sent the following announcement:

“This is going out to all members:  

Fun Publications wants to take this opportunity to apologize to all of our members. 

After many days of analysis, Fun Publications has determined that there is a security issue with our e-commerce systems.  We appreciate all of you who have sent in your details.  Your help has allowed us to ferret out several different patterns of fraudulent charges that have appeared on some members’ cards (any that have been used over the last year with both the club store and our event registration system).

We have several different internet/networking companies looking into the matter. Unfortunately, as of yet, we have not been able to identify any forcible entry either into our internet service provider’s servers or network.  This is like chasing a ghost through the wires, as unfortunately, the perpetrator did not leave a trail, foot prints or finger prints.

For those of you who have been affected, we apologize for all of your time this has wasted and any inconvenience it has caused you. We understand your frustration as this same type of fraud has happened to everyone in our office on our personal credit cards at some point in the past. Our merchant services provider wants us to remind everyone that even though this can be a huge annoyance for you, the customer, your issuing bank will not hold you responsible for any fraudulent charges that might be placed on your card(s).   

We know that this issue has been a huge topic of discussion on all of the boards for the past few weeks.  However, we are required to investigate to determine and confirm a security issue thoroughly before making any public statements.  This is why we put out a general alert statement two weeks ago.  

Until the analysis is finished (can take several weeks) we don’t know if the shut down by our former (Jan 31st) e-commerce provider caused the security issue or not.  We do know that it has not been limited to those who have purchased before the change to our new provider.

Please, watch your cards closely as this type of security issue appears to be on the increase across the net.  No site is 100% safe.  You may want to consider having any cards you have used with Fun Publications in the last year replaced.

At this time, we do not know how long our e-commerce site will be offline for both the store and registrations.  We will get back to you once we have a solution for this security issue.

Thanks for your support – Brian”

The timing couldn’t be worse for the Club has they approach registration for JoeCon and the potential launch for the Figure Subscription Service.  Hopefully the issues can be resolved soon and we can go back to business as usual.