Credit Cards FAQ
What should I do with my credit card receipts to protect myself from identity theft?
Losing a credit card receipt that shows your full account number and expiration date can be nearly as dangerous as losing a credit card. Anyone with this information on a found or stolen receipt can potentially use your credit card information for a fraudulent shopping spree.
Without the actual plastic card, criminals must resort to phone or online purchases to commit their fraud. Thankfully most reputable merchants require that the 3 or 4 digit security code (printed on the reverse or front of most credit cards) be included to complete a sale over the phone or on the Internet. Since credit card receipts don’t carry this information, the risk of fraud from their loss is a bit less compared to losing the card itself.
Many merchants now only include the last four digits of a customer’s credit card number on the receipt. Most of the number is blocked out with asterisks. The Federal Fair and Accurate Transactions Act states that receipts for credit card and debit card transactions may not have more than the last five digits of the card number or expiration date visible to others.
However, there are exceptions. This section of the law does not apply to receipts for which the only method of recording a credit card or debit card number is by handwriting or by using an old-fashioned carbon imprinting machine. However some states have already outlawed those. For instance California only prints credit card receipts from NCRs and other types of electronic point of sale terminals.
You should also never just throw any kind of credit card receipt in the garbage. This is because thieves known as dumpster divers or dumpster diggers can sift through garbage looking for financial information. Thieves will also look through garbage cans in malls for old carbon style receipts that have a person’s financial information on them.
The point is that until all stores in North America stop listing full account numbers and card expiration dates on receipts you need to keep a close eye on all of your credit card receipts. All such documents should be shredded or torn up before they get dumped in the trash.