On top of the ChoicePoint, Bank of America, BJ'S Wholesale Club, TriCare West, UVa (Wise campus), and others, now comes these latest two. 

Yesterday, March 8, 2005, Retail Ventures, Inc. reported in press release that credit card information has been stolen from  DSW Shoe Warehouse's database.

In the press release they give an 800 phone number to call.  But don't bother. You get no where with it and you're wasting your time.  The 800 # takes you to Palm Beach, Florida where you get someone they've contracted to take phone calls.  They don't know what stores are involved and cannot tell you anything.  They cannot tell you if you've been victimized!

Next a phone call to their 53 year old Chief Financial Officer/Secretary/Treasurer James A. McGrady at their Columbus, Ohio headquarters (phone 614-471-4722) got less than sympathetic response also. 

"Call your credit card company" he says.  When asked what stores were involved since only 103 out of 175 are, he says they don't know.  

Talk about unhelpful...he was!  If any of you shop at DSW SHOE WAREHOUSE, you better do something now on your own since this company will NOT tell you if you've been one of the ones whose information has been stolen...

When the ChoicePoint mess happened, they at least sent letters out to some people (it took a while though) and people got the same song and dance from them... and no help!  No one would tell anyone if they'd been victimized. 

Maybe we need a law to make it a LEGAL CERTAINTY that a company has to send you a letter if your personal information is/has been hacked/stolen!!! 

To read news stories about the DSW SHOE WAREHOUSE mess, click HERE. AND HERE for two different stories.

And on top of this is the LexisNexis misadventure where 32,000 U.S. citizens' personal records/information were "possibly" compromised says the company's corporate parent, Reed Elsevier Group PLC today. 

But so what!  Just get into a Court Clerk's/Recorder's website and you can find more SSNs and other personal information than anyone one person could ever need...They're public records so ANYONE can sign up...but most sites are FREE!

Talk about ridiculous! Why aren't our legislators doing something to stop it!

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