Credit Unions Seek Foothold in TJX Case

BOSTON – Credit unions are bidding to join the lawsuit against TJX Companies that seeks millions of dollars in costs accrued in the company’s massive data breach. SELCO Community CU, of Eugene, Ore., last week asked the federal court here to certify all credit unions and banks that received an alert from Visa or MasterCard related to the TJX breach for purposes of a class action suit against Fifth Third Bancorp, the cards processor for TJX. SELCO attorneys said in court documents Fifth Third, the nation’s fourth-largest cards processor, was told of the breach by TJX on Dec. 26 or 27, 2006, but waited three weeks before it notified its credit union and bank customers. Fifth Third is the acquiring bank for TJX, acquiring and processing the national retailer’s Visa and MasterCard accounts. A group of New England banks has filed suit against TJX, but credit unions have yet to join that suit. The TJX breach is believed to have involved more than 45 million customers’ accounts at the company’s TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Winners, Home Goods, A.J. Wright and Home Sense stores, forcing hundreds of credit unions and banks to reissue credit cards. The information is believed to have been used by online gangs to make counterfeit credit cards. The leader of one such group was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison and ordered to pay $600,000 in restitution for using TJX information to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise with bogus cards. Another suspect believed to be trafficking in TJX information was arrested last month in Istanbul.