At some of the Target stores locally and nationally they all share the same type of problems with the Target Guest / Visa card. The problem is not generated at the corporate level, it is at the store level. These problems range from simply Data Entry-misinformation errors to Team Member theft / Fraud. Target has done little to protect the guest from the missuse of their card information, other than installing the SMART CHIP into all the new Visa cards being issued. The only thing that Target has done was that they sent out an ADVISORY last month, warning the Public about the high rate of theft & Fraudulent charges being done on some Target card. Some of the fraudulent acts & other problems with the card include the following:
1. The Team member telling the guest only the bare minim about the card, not mentioning to the guest that the 10% is only upon approval and that the transaction has to go on to the new card.
2. The Team member lying to the guest, making the Target credit card more incising than it really is, like making it sound like a "safeway" discount card
3. The Instore Instant Credit contests which turns the business of getting a credit card in to a competition among the Team members to help boost the stores instant credit rating.
4. Credit card number theft at the front lanes.
5. Purposely placed errors, Sometimes the team member on the other end of the application at "Retailers National Bank" purposely misspell the person's last or first name on the account to divert the payment in to a holding account generating late payments on the account until the Guest calls to correct the error.
6. Fraudulent processing of applications, sometimes other team member fill out an instant credit application on someone else without their full consent, or just doing out of spite to get back at someone that might have done something to that they feel requires a revenge act.
These are only a few of the ways that fraud can occur at Target. Another major way for Target is right up at the Front Lanes, about 75% of the cashiers are honest but there are about 25% that are dishonest and that is where most of the fraud comes from. One of the most common types of fraud is credit card # theft from the secondary receipt that prints up for you to sign after you make a charge. Since the introduction on the smart chip technology that stores your name on the card and prints it on the bottom line of that receipt, only about 70% of those slips even make it in to the draw, the rest either get buried in a pile of gift receipts laying around and then go in to the hands of the crocked team member. The slips with the name printed on the bottom are far more desirable than the ones without a name on it. With the wide source of information out on you on the Internet this makes gathering all the information about you is fairly easy.
Another major way that Fraud is committed with these card is through the Signing up process its self. When the guest first decides to sign up for the card to save the 10% and then changes their mind about the card, most of the time the filled out "Dead" credit application never makes it to its intended destination the trash can, Instead after the guest leaves the store the credit application makes its way up to guest service for processing. When an application is processed and approved at Guest Service the new credit card information "Name, Card Number, & Exp. Date" is stored in the computer until the close of business. That Information can be viewed by any team member that knows how to operate the Target network. Also paying a bill at Guest Service may not be as SECURE as you may think, by paying the bill and leaving that slip with the check, & not waiting for the receipt is a disaster waiting to happen. That leaves the door wide open to make Fraudulent charges on your at Target.com.
Finally the easiest and most preventable way of stopping Fraud is the checking of Ids with the use of the Target card, "Most target stores don't practice this simple procedure of prevention." Most of these types of Frauds mentioned in this article are almost undetectable by the store's security cameras & Assets Protection team. Most of the time the guest will have no idea that a major theft has occurred until it is almost too late because the card was not physically stolen.
Here are some tips to help prevent you from being the next Target Card Victim:
1. After swiping the card keep the card face down minimizing the exposure of the # to the cashier while verifying signatures
2. Keep track of where Signed credit is at all times and make sure that it makes it in to the Drawer under the register.
3. When paying your Target Card bill at Guest Service, DON'T leave your bill stub with the cashier & Also wait for the receipt showing that the payment has been successfully made. "The information on your Bill stub can be easily used on TARGET.com.
Since each Target store has a quota of about 10 applications per day that they have to meet every day, this create the high pressure selling of the Target cards. Since this goal is sometimes hard to meet then the managers "LOD's" put on the extra pressure, by turning the business of getting a credit into a competition against the other Team members, forcing them that way to get the word out, and try to make the guests wanna sign up for the credit card.
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