Disney alerts movie-club members to privacy breach

[crazy4wdw]

Disney alerts movie-club members to privacy breach

A Wisconsin man is arrested in connection with an attempt to sell credit-card information.

Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
July 14, 2007

Credit-card information for an undisclosed number of Disney Movie Club members worldwide was reportedly offered for sale -- illegally -- by an employee of a sales account-processing company who was then arrested by federal agents.

Disney sent letters last week to an undisclosed number of members of its movie club, warning them that their names and addresses, and their credit cards' types, numbers and expiration dates, were in the hands of a suspect arrested in a federal undercover sting. One of Disney's warning letters, dated July 6, was forwarded to the Orlando Sentinel on Friday.

The Disney letters assure people that there was no indication that the credit-card information was offered to anyone other than to undercover federal agents, nor was there any indication it was used to buy anything. The letters also state that the cards' security-code numbers apparently were not involved.

Still, Disney warned the club members to contact their banks and check their statements carefully. Disney referred them to a telephone hotline if they had any questions.

Disney Movie Club members purchase mail-order videos or DVDs from Buena Vista Home Entertainment's library, which includes classic Disney movies such as Mary Poppins, recent features such as Cars, and TV entertainment such as High School Musical.

The suspect, not identified in the Disney letter, worked for Alta Resources Inc., a credit-card order-processing company for Disney Movie Club, according to the letter.

David Haltinner, 25, of Wisconsin was arrested in the case in Wisconsin on May 24 and charged in Nashville, Tenn., with a federal felony of access-device fraud, according to federal officials. Details of the criminal complaint are sealed, however, and officials of the U.S. Secret Service, which ran the sting, and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nashville have declined to offer details so far.

Eric Maehara, spokesman for Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Disney's video-sales unit, said he could not say how many people were on the list of members. He said Disney Movie Club has "under 1 million members" -- but not all of them use credit cards with their accounts, and not all of the credit cards used by members were compromised.

He said federal officials told Disney there is only one suspect in the case.

The Sentinel's calls to Alta Resources for more information were referred to the company's president and chief financial officer, but neither was available Friday afternoon.

Disney's letter states that the suspect is no longer employed by Alta. It also states that the company has taken additional corrective and precautionary measures, and has been independently certified under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Alta has processed the Disney Movie Club purchases for more than a decade, Maehara said.

Maehara said that, as soon as federal law-enforcement officials informed Disney, the company contacted the credit-card companies Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover "so that they could put those cards that were investigated under surveillance. Then we outreached to the customers."

 

[Tissa]

I'm one of those that received that letter, along with a Cinderella III DVD that I didn't order. I'm not sure which was more upsetting.

 

[disneyfanatic67]

this happened to a friend. Her check card# was sold and used! It was traced back to the Disney employee!

 

[aesalsa]

I received this letter also, but I haven't had any problems thankfully.

 

[thefirebuilds]

Woo, glad it wasn't us, I work for a big FI in Wisconsin.

this though:

The suspect, not identified in the Disney letter, worked for Alta Resources Inc., a credit-card order-processing company for Disney Movie Club, according to the letter.


S.C. Johnson Wax is a big customer of theirs, they are a customer service outsource up north for a number of large companies. When I worked for Johnson they handled credit card orders and sales for our mail order business, (for people who couldnt be bothered to buy ziploc bags at the grocery store).

 

[yensidretlaw]

I also received the letter and took it to my bank and they recommended that we close our current Checking Account and Debit Card. They then opened a new Checking Account and issued a new Debit Card. They recommended this because someone had come in with the same letter and had several thousands of fraudulent charges hit his account.