LPFail

Some thief paid for an Xbox using my credit card and thinks that they are going to pick it up at a Walmart in Illinois. That person is presumably going to walk into the store today or tomorrow, go to the customer service counter, present their order information for their fraudulent order, and wait for the Xbox to be retrieved from the back room.

In a sane world, the Walmart staff would keep track of the fact that this order is fraudulent, and when the thief walks into their store they would smile, walk into the back, and call the police. They would also keep the security footage, and make that available to the police. If they want to avoid trouble in the store, they could call the police, give the thief an excuse about the order being delayed a day, and have the police arrest the thief outside the store. Or the police could follow the thief and see if they learn anything more.

Instead, Walmart has given my name, email address, phone number, home address, and credit card details to the thief. And since they cancelled the order, they feel they are done. American Express will replace my card, but won’t collect any information to give to law enforcement about the attempted theft.

I called the Walmart store, told them that I was calling about a thief who was going to try to steal something from their store, and asked to speak to their store manager or head of security. They kept me on hold for a while and then disconnected me.

I called Walmart.com and told them that my account had a security breach. They refused to delete my credit card information, remove or change any of my personal information, or shut down my account. They refused to contact their own internal tech support or security department. And when I asked for a supervisor, they hung up on me.

I’m not sure that I like Walmart any better than the thief.