FACTA Credit Card Lawsuit Attorneys
When you buy something with your credit card or debit card, you may keep the receipt for a while but eventually you throw it away and probably don’t think much more about it. Ordinarily, this is perfectly fine to do because receipts are not supposed to contain information that could be used by others to commit fraud. In fact, the information printed on receipts is governed by a federal law call the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, or FACTA.
If a merchant is printing receipts that contain too much customer information, you as a consumer have the right to hold them accountable.
The Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman, P.C. handles FACTA lawsuits on behalf of consumers in California, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania. We are highly skilled consumer protection lawyers with extensive experience in FACTA lawsuits and related credit card privacy cases. We take on these cases because we believe that consumer privacy is extremely important, and stores that print too much credit card information on receipts are putting people’s privacy at risk.
What Is FACTA?
Passed into law by Congress in 2003, FACTA is designed to help fight identity theft. It specifically states that credit card and debit card receipts given to customers must meet certain requirements, known as “truncation requirements”:
- Receipts must not display the card’s expiration date.
- Receipts may display the last five digits of the account number, but no more.
FACTA required businesses to upgrade their point-of-sale and card processing machines by 2006, so all businesses operating today should have proper machines.
How to Recognize an Improperly Truncated Receipt
A receipt that complies with FACTA will look something like this:
- Account Number: **** **** **** 1 2345
- Expiration: ****
There are many examples of ways that a receipt can violate FACTA. Remember, a receipt is in violation if it contains any account numbers other than the last five digits or any expiration date information. All of the following examples would be FACTA violations:
- Account Number: 1234 **** **** 9999
- Account Number: **** **** *123 4567
- Expiration: 5/24
- Expiration 5/2024
- Expires: 05/****
Receipts that are emailed, written by hand, imprinted, or included inside a package shipped to your home or office are not required to comply with FACTA.
Should I Pursue a FACTA Lawsuit?
Reporting FACTA violations helps both you and others. If you received an improper receipt, it is likely that many other people who shop at the same place are also having their credit card information exposed on their receipts as well. This puts your privacy and the privacy of others in jeopardy.
Businesses can face penalties of between $100 and $1,000 per violation. Since there are typically hundreds or even thousands of people whose credit card information has been exposed at a business, these cases often proceed as class actions, which allow all the affected people to proceed in their lawsuit together as one.
If you do get a receipt that you believe is in violation of FACTA, the best thing to do is seek out a qualified consumer rights attorney’s advice. An attorney will be able to quickly confirm that this is a violation or explain why it isn’t.
Contact Our FACTA Lawsuit Attorneys Today
Consumers in California, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania can reach out to the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman, P.C for advice on any FACTA credit card or debit card receipt question. You can call us at 1-877-619-8966 or send us an email.