Who else got a "Certegy Check Svcs" letter? Let's figure out who they process for...

CZroe

My brother got a letter in the mail from Certegy Check Services, Inc (Fidelity subsidiary) claiming that his data was stolen by an employee (later terminated) and sold to a "data broker" and then consequently sold to a direct marketing firm.

How is this gaming-related? It goes on to say this:
"For your background, Certegy provides check authorization services to U.S. retail merchants and also provides certain credit/debit card-related services to the gaming industry.

My brother only uses a check for the rent and, knowing our background, this was almost certainly a gaming-related credit/debit card transaction. They are obviously trying to obscure the name of the company they process for because it is not that company's fault, but I'd still like to uncover this. We can do this by analyzing which of us receive this letter and what "gaming related" things we have done with credit cards.

Obviously, they aren't talking about buying a game or console from Best Buy/Wal-Mart. My brother and I do not have XBOX Live though I believe he may have bought something on the XBOX 360 installed at work. He is signed up for Playstation Network, though I see no purchases on our PS3. Even though I have scolded him numerous times for buying Wii points on credit (I always use coupons on the cards), but he has bought them over and over. I fear that it is most likely related to our Nintendo Wii Points purchases (worst case for Nintendo whores like us).

Report? Any other ideas what kind of gaming-related transactions this could be from? Thanks! We did take our nephew to Chuck E Cheese recently, but I somehow doubt that they would imply the "gaming industry" bit in regards to that.

FreddyD

Does he play any MMOs?

Ichinisan

FreddyD wrote: »

Does he play any MMOs?

Nope. I knew I was forgetting an large obvious thing to rule out (CZroe's brother... right here).

Atlus Parker

wikipedia.org wrote:

On July 3rd,2007 Certegy announced via press release that their security had been compromised by one of its own employees. Nearly 3 million names had been stolen and sold to marketing companies who then contacted various consumers with "offers to sell stuff". Certegy has filed a civil complaint in St. Petersburg, Fla., against the former employee and the marketing companies believed to have received the misappropriated data, seeking retrieval of all consumer information as well as an injunction against any use.

http://fightcertegy.blogspot.com/ wrote:

Odds are you found this site because you recently got just such a letter. In brief, Certegy is a financial company that has a file on you if you've ever written a check to any of these retailers, or gotten cash at a casino.

Should answer your questions.

PiptheFair

Why is it always near me ?

FreddyD

So this is about spam, not about someone using your financial information to steal money?

Misanthropic

PiptheFair wrote: »

Why is it always near me ?

Fark.com has a Florida tag for a reason.

Atlus Parker

FreddyD wrote: »

So this is about spam, not about someone using your financial information to steal money?

It's about someone stealing CZroe's info, him recieving a letter about it, then trying to figure out which company dropped the ball.

Zxerol

I got the same exact letter a few weeks back, as well. The only retailer on that list that I patronized was EB and Best Buy -- they were either credit or debit card purchases.

mspencer

Certegy is a check service. The company I work for resells their service. I have to tread very carefully here but I want to help. If you need to know anything, I'll carefully confirm that what I'm disclosing is public information, and then I'll tell you if I can.

When they say 'gaming industry' I'm pretty sure they're talking about gambling, not video games. When I worked at Ameristar Casino Council Bluffs I know we called ourselves part of the gaming industry.

Edit: I believe this means: unless you've been using your Visa/Mastercard at a local casino, the data they are talking about involves check conversion or verification at any of a ton of retail merchants. So if you've paid for anything by check, and those people might have used a check service to verify your check before accepting it, those merchants might have been using Certegy and that might be how they got your info.

Ichinisan

Thanks! I thought they were specifically referencing the relevance to me with that line about providing the service to the gaming industry while not getting specifics about who.

[Gah, this is CZroe again...]