Not being a G.I. Joe collector, I’ve only been following this issue from a distance, but it seems worthy of mentioning. Fun Publications, who appear to be Hasbro’s equivalent to Digital River, is the company who handles the G.I. Joe and Transformers collectors’ clubs. Club members have been hit by credit card fraud related to security flaws in FP’s system (which were noticed by collectors years ago).
Hasbro released their official statement on the matter yesterday.
To the G.I. Joe and Transformers fan communities and Fun Publications customers,
Thank you for bringing your concern to our attention and for giving Hasbro the opportunity to respond to a matter that impacts its G.I. Joe and Transformers brands. Please know we take all consumer concerns very seriously and are in regular contact with Fun Publications (our licensee) about the possibility of a breach in security to their online purchasing system for the G.I. Joe and Transformers Collectors’ Clubs. Fun Publications is also taking this matter very seriously and is diligently working at identifying any problems, the number of customers affected and ways to ensure it does not happen to any more customers. Hasbro wants consumers to have a positive experience at all touch points for its brands, including transactions with its licensees. As such, we are confident that Fun Publications has detailed instructions and pertinent information available for those consumers who believe they may have been targeted by credit theft via their portals.
Based on our extensive conversations with the Fun Publications team Hasbro wants to convey the following to the fan communities:
Fun Publications has assured us that they are taking necessary measures to curb additional issues, and they are working with third party experts to identify the problem. They anticipate knowing and communicating the cause of the breach as soon as possible to those affected.– They believe that the number of customers affected is low relative to the volume of sales transactions made.
– However, if you believe fraudulent charges have been made to your credit card after making a purchase with any portals for the G.I. Joe or Transformers Collectors’ Clubs, we urge you to contact Fun Publications immediately and provide them with the information requested at <https://www.transformersclub.com/tccccinfo.cfm> or <http://gijoeclub.com/ccinfo.cfm> by using the “Contact Us†link at the bottom of these pages.
– Fun Publications can also be reached at the following number for additional consumer affairs inquiries relating to the G.I. Joe and Transformers Collectors’ Clubs at (817) 448-9863during regular business hours.
– As more information becomes available, they will be contacting all affected customers who have notified them about the issue.
Thank you again to all of the fans of our Transformers and G.I. Joe brands for their continued support and for the opportunity to respond to this matter.
So, Hasbro basically backs up FP. Again, I haven’t been following this very closely, though it reminds me of the CornerStoreComics debacle from a few years back.
Has anyone been affected by this? How has the response from FP been?
Mysterious Stranger
Its not just the GI Joe fans that have been hit. The Transformers fans got hit hard due to their membership figures going up for sale a month or so ago. They're the ones that noticed the fraud and brought it to FP's attention. Unfortunately FP brushed it off initially stating that credit card fraud on the internet happens and there was nothing wrong with their system. It was only after increased and continual pressure from both Joe and TF fans that they looked into the issue, found their systems had been severely hacked and admitted. They still aren't doing much to fix the issue aside from finally upgrading their software from the 1980's and fans are still PISSED that they have to change all their credit cards due to this blatant lack of security on FP's part. The hacking was so bad that FP's craptastic forums were compromised with member emails and passwords possibly getting into the hands of the hackers.
It is the definition of clusterfuck.
Mysterious Stranger
Its not just the GI Joe fans that have been hit. The Transformers fans got hit hard due to their membership figures going up for sale a month or so ago. They're the ones that noticed the fraud and brought it to FP's attention. Unfortunately FP brushed it off initially stating that credit card fraud on the internet happens and there was nothing wrong with their system. It was only after increased and continual pressure from both Joe and TF fans that they looked into the issue, found their systems had been severely hacked and admitted. They still aren't doing much to fix the issue aside from finally upgrading their software from the 1980's and fans are still PISSED that they have to change all their credit cards due to this blatant lack of security on FP's part. The hacking was so bad that FP's craptastic forums were compromised with member emails and passwords possibly getting into the hands of the hackers.
George
From a distance, it seems like Hasbro did better than Mattel (I tried avoiding the comparison but you did it in you post :P) They didn’t just say, Well these things are bound to happen,it was just a matter of time, we will try to resolve this, by making it more confusing and we will likely see this again because it is impossible to do business in a straight forward manner when it comes to action figures.
I dealt with the CSC fraud and I have to say it never affected my relationship with them, I stopped buying from them because their selection is somewhat limited now, but I thought it was handled ok, on my end got my money back from the bank in a timely manner.
Ridureyu
At least Sony gave us free stuff as compensation.