DSW Stores Printed Too Many Payment Card Digits on Receipts, Class Action Alleges

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A proposed class action claims Designer Brands, Inc. has violated the privacy of Florida consumers by printing too many credit and debit card digits on receipts.

The lawsuit alleges the defendant, who operates nearly 550 DSW stores in the U.S. and Canada, “knowingly or recklessly” failed to comply with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), which prohibits retailers from printing payment card expiration dates or more than the last five digits of the card number on customer receipts.

The lawsuit more specifically claims Designer Brands has overstepped FACTA by printing the first six and last four digits of payment cards on receipts, thereby “mak[ing] it easier for identity thieves to defraud consumers.” 

According to the suit, someone who finds a receipt in the trash, the defendant’s retail employees, or even other customers who catch a glimpse of someone’s receipt are, thanks to Designer Brands’ practices, well equipped to find out the rest of the information they need to commit fraud. The case points out that the first six digits of a card number, in particular, reveal a slew of information, including the name of the card-issuing institution, card level, and card industry program, that a thief can use in a targeted “phishing” attack to uncover more about a customer’s identity and financial accounts. Per the suit, a thief could use the information gleaned from the first six digits to also call or email the customer while posing as the store or bank and extract more data.

“The only reason Plaintiffs were exposed to these real risks is because Defendant printed the first six and last four digits of their card account numbers on their receipts,” the complaint reads. “Absent Defendant’s memorialization of the first six digits of Plaintiffs’ cards on their receipts, a thief has no practical way to learn that information because banks issue cards using multiple first-six digit combinations, sometimes hundreds by a single bank, and thus without the receipt a thief cannot determine which first-six-digit combination is on Plaintiffs’ cards.”

Per the case, Designer Brands had until December 2006 to comply with FACTA’s requirements yet has refused to do so. The suit adds that the defendant has been sued twice before for similar alleged privacy violations and thus “is not new to the provisions of the [Fair Credit Reporting Act],” of which FACTA is an amendment.

The lawsuit, which has been removed from Miami-Dade County Circuit Court to Florida’s Southern District Court, looks to represent anyone in the U.S. who, within the past two years and until class certification is granted, used their debit or credit card at one of the defendant’s retail locations in the U.S., at which time the company’s point-of-sale system was programmed to generate a receipt that displayed more than the last five digits of the customer’s credit or debit card number or the card’s expiration date.

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