And by "free" they mean paid for by companies wanting your contact information for solicitation.

Translation:

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Did they update the letter and if so have a link to the fixed version yet?

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It's a sad state of affairs when they screw up and have no compensation for those who got screwed or possibly could. It's upsetting that we as victims have to change our information. Do they even understand that most of us use 1 card? I use a debt/credit card. I would have to change everything that this card is tied to? It's just a sad state of affairs

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That, but they still sent the membership renewal cutout date today.
I still can't believe it.

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"Thanks for all the kind emails"?! What delusional whackjob is sending them kind emails about this? If I was going to contact them I'd be polite sure but kind? Oh hell no. If I could prove that the fraud I had on my card was a result of their breach then they'd know about it in a serious way. But you can bet your ass I wouldn't be showing them any sympathy, not after it took them how many weeks to respond?

No this all just smells of them trying to cover their asses so if anything does come about legally they can say, here, look, we sent out all these emails telling people what happened and what we suggested they do. Granted I'm sure they are genuinely concerned about the breach and probably feel bad about it but their response has been lackluster to say the least and borderline condescending.

Also on the PayPal issue, I just looked at PayPals site regarding merchant transaction fees. Unless I'm looking in the wrong place the fee PayPal charges for merchant transactions is at the highest 2.9% plus $.30 per transaction. So let's look at convention registration using last year's 3 3/4" con set price of $305.00. 2.9% of $305.00 is $8.85 plus $.30 you're looking at a grand total of $9.15. That leaves them with $295.85 to cover the rest of their costs and profit. Now compare that to a regular credit card processing fee which, depending on your bank could be anywhere from 1% to as high as 6% but averaging around 3% (in my experience, I'm not a banking professional or a business owner) and I think that the percent that PayPal charges is certainly preferable to losing business and having your reputation damaged. Also I don't know if PayPal charges merchants for transferring their funds from their PayPal account to a bank account like they do with regular users so that might add to the fee but still, in my opinion, is better for security and the peace of mind of your customers. Maybe not as a 100% PayPal only for credit cards but at least give people the option.

Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

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But PayPal is on the internet....s-c-a-r-e-y!

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I have just a trooper level membership, and for the life of me cant remember ever buying anything from them. That should mean they dont have my number right? Or was a cc required for registration of even a nonpaying membership?

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A huge part of me wishes they would, I had issues with them many moons ago and swore off them, I was debating getting back but not now in light of this. Someone who will treat the club like a club and not a "business" need to deal with the club IMO.

Nope. The trooper membership is the free one and I believe you get it when you sign up for their "forum". My paid membership reverted to a trooper when I didn't re-up with them last year.

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Got a message this morning that there had been suspicious activity on my Capital One Card.

Had to cancel the card and close the account. Fortunately, it was only my toy/hobby card. But still, pain in the arse and not something that should have ever happened.

I'm not sure what people are expecting to happen here. If there are fraudulent charges on your card, it's up to your bank to fix those. Suggesting that you get a new card when your info has been stolen seems like a reasonable suggestion to me and is usually what the bank will do when something like this happens. If you've not had any problems, then it may not matter but if it's happened then that's generally how that kind of situation is handled.

I think it is more the lacks-a-daisical way the Club is handling this.

There should have been up front, we might have a site wide problem here and address it.

Instead the timing sucks and the fans/collectors are ready to go off because everything is coming to a point with the Con, subscriptions, renewals, etc...

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People are upset about the "LASER BLAST" way the club is handling it, and the resulting turmoil in having to get a new card. Surely you understand that?

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what suspicious activity are hitting your cards? What amounts? I have yet to get any charges on mine but you never know

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I would have absolutely missed mine if the company hadn't called it out to me.

It was a series of small transactions ($1-10 each) with various online merchants (including Google). The card had an almost $5k limit, and I usually run up anywhere between $100-$200 each month in small transactions and then just pay off the balance at the end of the month. And even though it's always with the same merchants (eBay, Paypal, BBTS, Target, Wal Mart), I rarely look at the line item summary of charges online. So I would've just thought this was usual activity.

My guess is that Capital One caught them "testing" the card to see if it was valid and that, if they hadn't noticed the unusual venues, the next charge might've been a bigger one.