When paying with a credit card or Knet card at Sultan Center you might have noticed that once the transaction goes through the employee swipes your card into their computer and your credit card number and other information gets dumped into their system. Cajie a reader of the blog sent them an email complaining about this, here is what he sent them:
I have been a frequent shopper of Sultan Center for quiet some time. However, I have become increasingly concerned about your procedure of scanning and storing customer’s credit card numbers in your sales system. This is a highly risky and unacceptable IT process, especially for such a leading retailer such as Sultan Center. Other leading merchants store only the last 4 digits of the credit card for verification purpose, which is just fine. It is my strong recommendation that your systems be reconfigured not to store sensitive customer data – especially in these days of increase rise in electronic fraud.
To his surprise the MIS manager at Sultan Center called him on the phone and assured him they made changes in their system to protect the customers financial data. After the phone call they sent him the following email with more details:
It was a pleasure talking to you over the phone, and we are really glad to have your comments and suggestions which will help us service our customers better. I would like to assure you that our Point of Sales system doesn’t hold or store the Full Credit card details, in fact this was rectified longtime back based on our Internal Audit department report. Now the transactions which are stored in our systems will only carry the last four digits of the credit card number XXXX XXXX XXXX 9021.
I hope that you are satisfied with this and Please don’t hesitate to contact us or me directly for any further queries. Wish you a very pleasant time in our stores and everywhere else.
It still doesn’t make me comfortable having them scan my card but at least now I know the information they do keep from the scan is very minimal.
11 replies on “Credit Card Details and Sultan Center”
Thats even dumb…I mean the masking of first 12 digits means the numbers are still there. And they will keep on punching those numbers in the POS. The banks need to talk to these outlets.
BTW this practice is also in City Centers around Kuwait.
Cajine, sorry but it was your own assumption of having the financial information stored in their system. I believe that you should first ask them in order to clear out any concern and then speak out load 🙂
DA,
City Center (Shuwaikh) stopped scanning the credit card number. Now their operators punch only the last 4 digits into the POS system. Dunno about the Salmiya location as I don’t visit it much.
Last nite was at Salmiya City Center…yep they punch all the numbers and name. Dont remember about expiry.
Armani_Exchange,
Sorry, but when I see my card scanned and the entire credit card number visible in the POS system, the only assumption one can get is that the value is stored in the database. I am an IT person and that’s what I would assume.
I did not speak aloud btw. I sent a polite email and I got an excellent (and polite) response from Sultan Center. I posted it in the forum for our members and Mark perhaps thought a wider audience might find it interesting.
Sultan Center has far greater problems than just credit card security. I used to be their fan until I experienced repeated and repeated episodes of spoilt expensive food – after buying it and taking it home to find it moldy or inedible. They have extremely poor quality control of their food products, and frequently sell food products that are expired just because they are expensive to import. Or, they will chop it all up and cook it as part of their unsavory ready prepared food. This has personally happened to me on more than a few occasions than I care to remember, and there are many other stories of this as well among consumers here in Kuwait. I dislike shopping there in the extreme, and am frequently put off to go there. Unfortunately there is no other place in Kuwait which sells some of the food products from the US and the UK that I like, so I have no choice I guess unless I dont want to buy anything at all from them anymore. I am greatly looking forward to the day when there is another purveyor or grocery store in Kuwait that sells the same products, who will offer them some competition and a run for their money, it is about time.
Very well done Cajie! I wouldn’t have expected a response from them as you mentioned! And Im still not sure about scanning the card. I prefer not to, that is why I usually pay cash at most places!
Cajie,
The fact that you are an IT person would certainly support your assumption. I totally agree with you 🙂
MTC been doing that for years , complained many times and the only thing they tell you is bring cash if you don’t want us to swipe
thank you Cajie 🙂
Aahh.. good old cash. 🙂
If you really wanna get paranoid about security, consider this: everytime you use your credit card, the bank knows what you’re doing. 😛