MasterCard, Visa Don't Have to Warn About Stolen Credit Card Information

MasterCard,

Visa Don't Have to Warn About Stolen Credit Card Information

In

San Francisco Friday, Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer agreed

that Visa and MasterCard are not required to send warnings to

the 40 million credit card and debit card customers whose information

became vulnerable to a credit card fraudster between August

2004 and May of this year.

While

the consumer lawsuit targeted Visa and MasterCard, the computer

security breach actually happened at CardSystems Solutions Inc.,

which processes payments on behalf of merchants.

MasterCard

and Visa argued that their "zero liability" policies

ensured that any fraudulent charges would not be the responsibility

of the affected cardhholders. The credit card networks also

implied that any warnings sent out might be the responsibility

of the card issuing banks, as the credit card holders are technically

customers of the banks, not of Visa or MasterCard.

Over

200,000 consumer credit accounts have experienced some level

of fraud due to the information theft.

Published 09/26/05 (Modified 05/07/12)