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A western Pennsylvania heating and refrigeration contractor said it was the victim of a "sophisticated cyberattack operation" that is being investigated by the Secret Service and possibly linked to the data breach that enabled hackers to access millions of credit card numbers belonging to Target store customers. Fazio Mechanical Services Inc., of Sharpsburg, issued the statement after Internet security bloggers identified it as the third-party vendor through which hackers accessed Target's customer information. Target had previously told reporters the store believed hackers accessed 40 million of its customers' card numbers through a vendor's system.

Target has increased the estimate for the number of customers exposed in the massive hacking attack between Thanksgiving and December 14. It now appears at least 70 million consumers had their credit cards compromised. Also, Neiman-Marcus announced that they, too, were victims of a cyber attack over Christmas. And in an exclusive report, Reuters is saying that several other well known retailers were also hacked over the holidays. Neiman Marcus said an outside forensics firm discovered evidence on January 1 that indicated the retailer had been the victim of a cyber attack. It disclosed the breach nine days later, after...

Credit card hackers might be developing a taste for the finer things in life. Upscale department store Neiman Marcus confirmed that its database of customer information was hacked last month, independent security researcher Brian Krebs reported on Friday. The Neiman Marcus hack follows news today from Target that its investigation into its recent hack found that thieves made off with the personal and credit card data of up to 110 million Target customers, 70 million more than previously thought.

Payment card data was stolen from an unknown number of Target Corp customers starting on the busy Black Friday weekend in a major breach at the U.S. retailer, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Secret Service is investigating, according to a spokesman for the agency, which safeguards the nation's payment systems. Target officials did not respond to requests for comment. Investigators believe the data was obtained via software installed on machines that customers use to swipe magnetic strips on their cards when paying for merchandise at Target stores, according to the person who was not authorized to...

I need to accept credit cards with my Android phone. Don't want to use Square because they discriminate against firearms and ammunition purchases. I need to know what alternative apps are available. Open to suggestion...

I am getting ready to write a letter to the Attorney General of Maine asking his office to investigate how companies put hold on debit/credit cards. During a recent trip we used a prepaid AAA debit card; we purchased gasoline for $29.00 and paid at the pump. After our purchase we checked our statement and the company put a hold of $75.00 on the card. We have a receipt for $29.00. A couple of days later the $75.00 dropped off and our card was debited for the actual amount of the purchase. I understand a company can put a hold...

NEWARK (CBS SF) — A woman who dined at a Newark seafood restaurant on her birthday and was handed the wrong credit card by the waitress at the end of her meal was arrested after she took the card and headed to a nearby mall on Sunday evening, police said. Jheline Demesa, 22, of San Leandro, ate dinner at Ray’s Crab Shack at 5989 Mowry Ave., where the waitress mistakenly gave her a credit card from an adjacent table, police said. Instead of returning the card, Demesa allegedly left the restaurant with it, police said. The real cardholder tried to...

Were you under the impression that your credit card transactions are private? If so, I am sorry to burst your bubble. As you will see below, there are actually multiple government agencies that are gathering and storing records of your credit card transactions. And in turn, those government agencies share that information with other government agencies that want it. So if you are making a purchase that you don't want anyone to know about, don't use a credit card. This is one of the reasons why the government hates cash so much. It is just so hard to track. In...

I received an email and text from Discover Card this morning, saying that I might be the victim of credit card fraud. I gave them a call, and learned that someone had charged over $10,000 worth of items over the past two days, at local stores: Walmart, Office Max, Publix, Macy's, and so on. My wife bought two shirts for me on Tuesday from Macy's, using her Discover Card, and within a few hours someone had somehow physically re-created the card and was using it all around town. Discover is not holding us accountable for the charges, and will reimburse...

(article photo) MADISON — There was, arguably, an important overlooked point in an audit last week that showed the Internal Revenue Services’ “lack of aggressive steps” in addressing misuse of government-issued credit cards IRS employees use when traveling. Almost a side note in the report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration was the fact that in fiscal 2011 the IRS travel card program had issued about 52,000 individually billed travel card accounts. That’s more than one card for every two IRS employees, a workforce that totaled 97,717 staffers at the end of 2012. The first question: Why does...

In the latest news rising out of the ashes of what once were the pristine halls of the IRS, a secretary has been arrested and charged with a felony for using an IRS issued credit card for personal items. Yetunde Oseni, 37 started working as a secretary in the Lanham, Maryland office of the IRS in 2000. In 2009, she was issued a Citibank MasterCard to be used for the purchasing of office supplies. It appears that Oseni decided that she could use her IRS MasterCard to purchase personal items off the internet, mostly at Amazon.com. When asked for the...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Alabama Men Arrested on Terrorism Charges U.S. Attorney’s Office December 11, 2012 Southern District of Alabama MOBILE, AL—U.S. Attorney Kenyen R. Brown of the Southern District of Alabama and Stephen E. Richardson, Special Agent in Charge of the Mobile Division of the FBI, announced that Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair, 25, and Randy Wilson, also known as Rasheed Wilson, 25, both U.S. citizens living in Mobile, were arrested today on terrorism charges filed in the Southern District of Alabama. A criminal complaint signed on December 10, 2012, charges Abukhdair and Wilson with conspiring to...

So much for silence from telemarketers at the cherished dinner hour, or any other hour of the day. Complaints to the government are up sharply about unwanted phone solicitations, raising questions about how well the federal "do-not-call" registry is working. The biggest category of complaint: those annoying prerecorded pitches called robocalls that hawk everything from lower credit card interest rates to new windows for your home. Robert Madison, 43, of Shawnee, Kan., says he gets automated calls almost daily from "Ann, with credit services," offering to lower his interest rates.... The agency said this month that it was mailing refund...

TAMPA -- A man enters a Clearwater strip club. He leaves three hours later thinking he's spent $600. A few days later he checks his credit card account and learns he was charged $50,000. There's no punchline or joke. That's what Lokesh Simon James said happened to him after a March night spent at the Bliss Cabaret, 3860 Ulmerton Road.

<p>More American households are falling back into the debt hole, this time without the safety net of home values to help bail them out, the New York Post reported Sunday.</p> <p>Last year, total US consumer debt reached its highest point in a decade, according to a credit card industry observer.</p>

The Charleston Police Department is asking for help in identifying two suspects that used a stolen credit card throughout the city. Two black female suspects had used the card back on Nov. 7 and were captured on video surveillance but cannot identify them. Some pictures from police have been attached to this story and if you have any information you can contact them at 304-348-6480.

Five foreign men were arrested during a courthouse break-in early on Wednesday and police said they found photographs of public buildings, water systems and malls from various U.S. cities in their van. The men, at least three of whom were in their 20s, will be questioned by a joint terrorism task force including the FBI and immigration authorities, officials said. Bexar County spokeswoman Laura Jesse said three men were found inside the 120-year-old Bexar County Courthouse, a landmark in downtown San Antonio and two in a large recreational vehicle parked in front of the building. She said all five were...

A beautiful Brazilian soap star has the lead role in her own daytime drama, which casts George Soros, the billionaire financier of lefty causes, as a heavy who not only broke her heart, but also reneged on a promise to give her an Upper East Side apartment worth $1.9 million. The drama will be staged in Manhattan Supreme Court, where 28-year-old Adriana Ferreyr yesterday filed a blockbuster $50 million suit charging, among other things, that the frisky octogenarian slapped her around while they were in bed discussing his real-estate betrayal. The sultry actress and the mogul, who's worth some $14.5...

<p>KNOXVILLE (AP) - A University of Georgia graduate assistant and a Baton Rouge, La., waitress have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville in a scam to steal debit and credit card information from restaurant customers.</p> <p>Waitress Shena Everett was in court Wednesday in Knoxville on a charge of conspiracy to commit access device fraud.</p>

Amid all the uplifting clichés at their commencement ceremonies, graduating college students won’t hear a line applicable to some of them — you got ripped off. Student debt just surpassed the country’s credit-card debt for the first time. It is projected to top $1 trillion this year, according to the New York Times, when it was less than $200 billion in 2000. For the class of 2011, the mean student-debt burden is nearly $23,000, up 8 percent from a year ago. There’s no doubt that graduating from college brings a significant economic advantage, but that doesn’t excuse the waste and...