Warning: Do not give Fun Publications your credit card info!
Normally I would call the vendor in question directly, but I did that the first time my credit card was compromised. I was told it was not them, then watched as many others posted online that their cards were compromised. My card was used only once in the past year, for a Botcon purchase. Thinking they must have gotten their act together, I recently ordered Over Run/Runabout. Different card, now this one is compromised. Not cool, especially when their reaction has been to send club members emails because people complained that they should contact folks directly, and proceeded to lecture in said email about how to safely use your card online.
My tip, avoid giving Fun Publications your credit card info.
Too late for me as I ordered "Over-Run" as well, but I haven't been hit yet. Probably just a matter of time so I'll ask for a new debit card number from my credit union before it can happen. I still have to renew my membership, but I'll us a Visa for that, it's more expensive, but it's safe. At least one person has said that they've used a new card recently to renew and that one was already hit.
What's discouraging is that they haven't addressed this at all on their own club forum, but have on other fan sites. There's talk of people trying to get Hasbro involved to put major pressure on FP.
Emerje
MyFigureCollection.net - Most of my Japanese figures
Associate Editor for Tomopop.com
Ugh hopefully this will be fixed soon so I can order the Footloose figure from them and its due in March!
" F***Ing Ebay!!"
The response from Fub Publications has been rather lacking but they did put up information on how to report fraud incidents to them. I copied the info and put it up on JBL:
http://joebattlelines.com/2012/02/20/g-i-joe-collectors-club-addresses-c...
Granted, they're not accepting responsibility for anything but that's not unusual from Fun Pub. The most shocking part of this is that cards that were both phoned in as well as used online have been affected including some that were used AFTER their "audit" began.
Be safe, people.
Wow, thanks for the heads up. I was seriously considering joining up with the GI Joe Club for the upcoming Joe subscription. After the account problems I had with Matty, I'm definitely not getting into the Joe sub if there's any chance of a repeat there.
Looks like I'll be completely sub-less this year. Wonder if Big Bad will be carrying the subscription figures as they do with MOTU...
They got me. I renewed my membership and ordered the exclusives and a few days later got hit by purchases on my debit card for purchases in finland and the UK. Took several days to get money back, still having to change my info on may sites and bill pays, etc. Huge hassle and not even an apology from the club that I have spent thousands of dollars with over previous years. Not cool.
John
Same here. $1K attempted in UK cosmetics, and attempted Google ads. Luckily my card put the kabosh on. And FunPub sends an email w no acknowledgement, only a contending lecture. NOT cool.
I let my transformers club membership lapse this year after getting a new card. Looks like it made the right call.
Ugh looks like its going to be overpriced after market for the club figure this year. Funny this happens when they announce a subscription service this year!
" F***Ing Ebay!!"
SM is definitely right on this one, the list at Hisstank of tfw2005 and hisstank members alone who have posted their cards getting hit is over 250. Mine was one as well. I got hit for three international transactions, and 4 more were attempted(first time I've ever been glad I didn't have any money in the account) in NY(Audio equipment), Singapore(presumably Lady-Boys), something called Swiss Global Clearing Acct and one in Vietnam. This isn't a matter of someone intercepting FunPub's transactions, their entire customer base's information was stolen and compromised. Members who never used their cards online, only ordering or renewing over the phone have been hit. And they keep all your information on file for years. The last purchase I made from the Club was in July of 2010.
The Clubs' complete denial of the situation being a security issue on their end, and their pi$$ poor handling of the fallout has made me believe that FunPub should no longer be granted the rights to the G.I.Joe and Transformers Conventions and fanclubs.
Their huge screw-up with the hotel accommodations for the New Orleans Joe Con was another massive fail, with them not even offering to pay the large difference or change fees because people had to change hotel reservations after having made them months ago. A more minor but still annoying offense was the Club's Dial-Tone 25th Anniversary style figure at last year's Con in Orlando. Paid members were supposed to be allowed to buy one(their were only a couple hundred made), but they were selling dealers multiples right in front of customers waiting in line. So people who had even gone so far as to purchase the "Golden Ticket" admission, supposed to guarantee access to all of the exclusives and had to pay for that privilege waaay in advance, went home without a Dial-Tone.
It's time for Hasbro to step in and force FunPub to either find some way to make it up to all their members, or drop their license.
As of now, ALL of the Fub Publications websites (both GIJoe & Transformers club) are down. To my knowledge there has been NO announcement of this entire situation via email to members nor has their been any announcement via the Club's social media channels. (FB or Twitter.)
It's pretty darned sad when the only news that most of us are hearing about this comes from fan sites and from members who have been hit by this widespread breach of security. Even on Facebook (which seems to be their most active channel) members have only had vague responses like "We're victims too" and "we're working on it".
It seems to me that Fun Publications has overstepped their capabilities in a HUGE way. Just look at 2012 thus far:
- The Figure Subscription Service (FSS) sign-up has been printed in newsletters for two successive months but the sign-up has never actually occurred.
- The convention dates and hotel were changed AFTER weeks of published announcements
- The credit card fraud scandal hit and the only communications from Fun Pub have been a few reactionary remarks that "the issue isn't that widespread" or "we're victims here too"
In marketing, this is called "poor communication". In the real world, this is just called inept.
So there has been an update: http://tformers.com/transformers-fun-publications-updating-transformers-club/17254/news.html
Wonder if someone at FP reads the Buzz?
Yeah, that went down a day or two ago, it's back up again. Pete said they're making a statement or something about this soon, of course that was 2 days ago so I don't know how long he considers "soon".
Pete@BotCon 2/21/2012
"We will have more information pertaining to all of this shortly..."
"We obviously have been affected by this. Some people online have gone as far as saying we are sitting back, ignoring it and laughing.
We are spending a great deal of resources (as we should) to address this and are committed to making sure we are as secure as possible in todays world."
At least they've finally started doing something, but they're really draging their feet about it. Not sure how easily they can win people over again. Having something like this happen just before memberships are due and subscriptions can't be good for them.
Emerje
MyFigureCollection.net - Most of my Japanese figures
Associate Editor for Tomopop.com
They finally made an official statement yesterday.
This is going out to all members:Fun Publications wants to take this opportunity to apologize to all of our members.
After many days of analysis, Fun Publications has determined that there is a security issue with our e-commerce systems. We appreciate all of you who have sent in your details. Your help has allowed us to ferret out several different patterns of fraudulent charges that have appeared on some members' cards (any that have been used over the last year with both the club store and our event registration system).
We have several different internet/networking companies looking into the matter. Unfortunately, as of yet, we have not been able to identify any forcible entry either into our internet service provider's servers or network. This is like chasing a ghost through the wires, as unfortunately, the perpetrator did not leave a trail, foot prints or finger prints.
For those of you who have been affected, we apologize for all of your time this has wasted and any inconvenience it has caused you. We understand your frustration as this same type of fraud has happened to everyone in our office on our personal credit cards at some point in the past. Our merchant services provider wants us to remind everyone that even though this can be a huge annoyance for you, the customer, your issuing bank will not hold you responsible for any fraudulent charges that might be placed on your card(s ).
We know that this issue has been a huge topic of discussion on all of the boards for the past few weeks. However, we are required to investigate to determine and confirm a security issue thoroughly before making any public statements. This is why we put out a general alert statement two weeks ago.
Until the analysis is finished (can take several weeks) we don't know if the shut down by our former (Jan 31st) e-commerce provider caused the security issue or not. We do know that it has not been limited to those who have purchased before the change to our new provider.
Please, watch your cards closely as this type of security issue appears to be on the increase across the net. No site is 100% safe. You may want to consider having any cards you have used with Fun Publications in the last year replaced.
At this time, we do not know how long our e-commerce site will be offline for both the store and registrations. We will get back to you once we have a solution for this security issue.
Thanks for your support - Brian
Hope they extend the renewal time is the store is down much longer, I still need to renew. My credit union really dragged their feet on canceling my card, finally did it Friday, but they said it might be more than a week before I see a replacement. 
Emerje
MyFigureCollection.net - Most of my Japanese figures
Associate Editor for Tomopop.com
Another update from FP, this one is Transformers Club related. Basically they said they aren't budging on the membership deadline which is kinda annoying, it's their fault people are hesitant to renew right away. On the bright side they're setting up a PDF with a club membership form so people can join/renew by check/MO. However, they still have to arrive on time so you're going to be at the mercy of the post office if you go that rout, the recommend not mailing it later that 3/9. And they're still mailing out Over-Run figures, and they're now mailing out T-shirt sets so that slows it down for the rest of us. Bah, why did I bother going with FedEx again? Oh, right, because it was only $1 more than the insanely overpriced USPS shipping. (We need an eye-roll smiley for times like this.)
Here's the full announcement:
This update is going out to all members:This week we are continuing shipments of the club exclusive orders.
The T-shirts came in this past week and we started shipping these orders as well. It will still take about 2 more weeks to get all of the orders out the door. Thanks for your patience! We hope you enjoy these great figures.
On Monday, we will have a pdf online on the club site for membership renewals and new memberships that you can mail in with a check or money order. We will process your membership as soon as they arrive.
Please note that the March 16th deadline is a hard deadline (in house) so please make sure any mail is in the postal system by March 9th.
If you want to receive the free club exclusive Runamuck, your membership must be active as of March 16th. At the bottom of this email you will find your expiration date. If it is after March 16, 2012, you are good to go for the 2012 figure.
Thanks for your support and patience during this difficult time.
Brian
Emerje
MyFigureCollection.net - Most of my Japanese figures
Associate Editor for Tomopop.com
Looks like Im not going to renew this year, Im not doing a money order and I dont even mess with checks so looks like im screwed lol. Its alright the magazine sucks balls just would have been nice to add a Footloose to my ranks, will be checking ebay and amazon in a few months looks like
" F***Ing Ebay!!"
I think it's still worthwhile for the Transformers club if the free figure is one you want. Over-Run cost me about $64, $50 for the figure and the rest for shipping, but Runamuck is free with the $40 membership and free shipping. I don't really read the mag other than the back cover, but $40 total for an exclusive Transformer is a great buy.
Emerje
MyFigureCollection.net - Most of my Japanese figures
Associate Editor for Tomopop.com
Fun Pub has now uploaded paper forms on their respective club websites for renewal. You have to mail those back in with a check or money order. If you're a Joe fan and want the Footloose figure, this all has to be done BY March 16th as the Club refuses to change their membership deadline.
Ah... customer service at its finest. They're the only game in town and they know it so why should they bother to accommodate their members in any fashion? Honestly-- it wouldn't be such a bad thing to see the GIJCC fold. They've been "less than customer friendly" for years and the bias toward the 12" product is obvious even though the majority of their membership is now composed of 1:18th members.
So do you have to be signed up by March 16 to get in on the GI Joe figure subscription service as well? Has there been any announcement at all when that will be up for grabs or any hint on the pricing?
I don't know for sure, but that doesn't sound likely. Usually things like that just require an active membership, join date doesn't matter. In fact I bet if you aren't a member and still wanted to subscribe there'll be a separate price that includes a new membership. They do the same thing with the con registrations and the club exclusives. Only real downside to not registering on time is you don't get this years incentive figure, but you do get the one for 2013.
Emerje
MyFigureCollection.net - Most of my Japanese figures
Associate Editor for Tomopop.com
So do you have to be signed up by March 16 to get in on the GI Joe figure subscription service as well? Has there been any announcement at all when that will be up for grabs or any hint on the pricing?
No word on the FSS right now. It would seem that it is off the table until Fun Pub can even figure out HOW the data was stolen in the first place. The most recent comments from them seems to indicate that it's all still a big mystery.
Bad things happen, and I don't really blame the club here. That being said, as a matter of practicality, I won't be using one of my credit cards for future purchases.
What I'll most likely do for the FSS is pick up a prepaid Visa gift card (which you can register with an address online) for the total of my purchase.. then, I'll just use that up buying the FSS and if some scumbag hacks it, there will be a zero balance on the card so they can have fun with that.