Because we value you as our guest and your trust is important to us,
you can sign up for one year of free credit monitoring that includes
identity theft insurance (except where prohibited by law). In addition
to a complimentary copy of your credit report, you will receive daily
credit monitoring, identity theft insurance where available, and have
access to personalized assistance from a highly trained Fraud Resolution
Agent. This offer applies to all Target guests who shopped in U.S.
stores. To register, please go to creditmonitoring.target.com before
April 23, 2014.
In addition, to guard against possible consumer scams, always be
cautious about sharing personal information, such as Social Security
numbers, passwords, user IDs and financial account information. Target
is also watching out for these scams and working with online partners to
take down fraudulent websites and stop social media scams intended to
exploit our guests. Here are some tips:
Never share information with anyone over the phone, email or text,
even if they claim to be someone you know or do business with. Instead,
ask for a call-back number.
Delete texts immediately from numbers or names you don’t recognize.
Be wary of emails that ask for money or send you to suspicious websites. Don’t click links within emails you don’t recognize.
You can also find a FAQ specific to the data breach, which includes information related to scams, here.
If I share my credit or debit account that was used at Target, who should sign up for free credit monitoring?
All Target guests who shopped in U.S. stores can take advantage of
one-year of free credit monitoring. Both account holders can sign up for
the product.
Request an activation code by entering your name and your email address on a Target website: creditmonitoring.target.com.
Within 1 to 5 days, you will receive an email from Target with your
unique activation code and instructions on next steps. After you receive
your activation code, visit www.protectmyid.com/target to register for one year of free credit monitoring. You must sign up before April 30, 2014.
Why do I need to enter my email address if I know you already have it?
In order to provide a simple, consistent experience for all guests
seeking free credit monitoring, Target is asking interested guests to
request an activation code by submitting their email address.
Will my email be used for anything other than credit monitoring?
Emails collected during this process will only be used for the purpose of sending a code for free credit monitoring.
If you are receiving other Target communications (e.g.,
weekly circular, Cartwheel, Target.com deals), you will continue to
receive those offers and emails.
Why might it take 5 days to get the activation code?
We are working as quickly as we can to make it easy for all guests to
register. We expect most codes to arrive much sooner than 5 days. Guests
will have until April 23, 2014 to request a code and until April 30,
2014 to register their code with Experian.
What is offered as part of the credit monitoring/ProtectMyID?
The one year of free monitoring membership to ProtectMyID includes:
Credit Report: You will get a free copy of their
Experian credit report. If you enroll online, your report will be
available online. Online credit reports are available for 30 days.
Daily Credit Monitoring: You will receive alerts for
one year that reflect changes to your Experian credit report during your
membership term. This includes new inquiries, newly opened accounts,
new derogatory information (such as delinquencies or medical
collections) and more.
Identity Theft Resolution: If confirmed that you have
been the victim of identity theft, you will be assigned a dedicated,
U.S.-based Experian Fraud Resolution Agent who will walk you through the
fraud resolution process—and remain available to answer questions—from
start to finish.
Identity Theft Insurance: If you have been a victim
of identity theft relating to this incident, you will immediately be
covered by a $1 million insurance policy that can help you cover certain
costs, including lost wages, private investigator fees, and
unauthorized electronic fund transfers for one year.
ProtectMyID ExtendCARE: Access to personalized
assistance from a highly-trained Fraud Resolution Agent will continue
even after the initial one year ProtectMyID membership expires.
Will I get a credit score as part of the free offering?
Credit scores will not be offered to guests who sign up for the free
year of credit monitoring. You do not need a credit score to receive the
benefits of credit monitoring.
You may visit creditmonitoring.target.com
to request an activation code through April 23,2014. Once you receive
your code, you have until April 30, 2014 to register on Experian’s
website. The one year of free credit monitoring begins once you register
with Experian.
When does the one year of free credit monitoring start?
Once you receive your unique code, you have until April 30, 2014 to
register with ProtectMyID. The one year of free credit monitoring begins
once you enroll with ProtectMyID.
Why is Experian asking me to pay for a credit score or to buy additional reports?
You do not need to purchase a credit score or additional reports from
Equifax and TransUnion to receive the benefits of credit monitoring.
Credit scores and additional reports can be purchased from Experian at
their own expense if guests choose.
Why is Target offering protection against identity theft?
We understand some guests are anxious and frustrated about the recent
data breach at Target. We are offering this product because your trust
important to us.
Why do I have to provide Experian with personal information, such as my social security number?
Experian asks for personal information—such as your social security
number—so that your identity can be verified during the registration
process and future log-ins. It is a security measure to ensure no one
else has access to your information.
Does the product monitor individual credit card transactions or should I still be monitoring my account?
ProtectMyID provides guests with credit monitoring alerts, which
reflect changes in their credit reports. Guests should always monitor
their card statements for unusual or suspicious activity.
If it has been more than five days since you submitted your name and
email address, we would encourage you to try the following steps:
First, check the junk or spam email folder. Depending on your email
filter settings, your email may have been directed to one of those
folders.
Re-submit your email address at creditmonitoring.target.com
to ensure the email address was accurately received. If the address was
incorrectly entered, you will not have received an email.
If neither of the above options work, please try submitting another request using a different email address.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s body
lay in state on Sunday outside parliament in Jerusalem, where thousands
of Israelis waited to bid farewell to the maverick warrior-statesman who
reshaped the Middle East.
Sharon died at the age of 85 on Saturday after eight years in a coma
caused by a stroke he suffered at the pinnacle of his political power.
He will be buried on Monday in a military funeral on his farm in
southern Israel.
“They say old soldiers do not die, they fade away. Arik Sharon faded
away eight years ago, and now we truly say goodbye to him,” Justice
Minister Tzipi Livni, using Sharon’s nickname, wrote in a tribute on
Sunday.
Sharon was one of Israel’s finest military strategists and most
powerful political figures, spearheading military invasion, Jewish
settlement-building on land the Palestinians want for a state, and
making the shock decision to withdraw from one of those territories, the
Gaza Strip.
Prime minister from 2001 to 2006, Sharon’s stroke happened shortly
after he quit the right-wing Likud party and founded a centrist faction
to advance peace with the Palestinians, whose 2000-2005 “Intifada”
uprising he had battled as prime minister.
In parliament’s main plaza, Israelis filed past Sharon’s coffin, which was draped in the blue-and-white national flag.
The mood was somber but not deeply mournful, eight years after Sharon
fell from public view. A few in the crowd wept, but many others paused
to snap photographs of the coffin with their cellphones.
“Whatever he decided to do, he followed it through to the end – and
that was his greatness,” said Shlomo Tal, 74, from Jerusalem, who came
to parliament to pay his respects.
LOVED AND HATED
Sharon was widely hated by Arabs over the 1982 massacre of hundreds
of Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Shatila camp in Beirut by
Lebanese Christian militiamen allied to Israel.
But the United States and other foreign powers mourned him as a
peacemaker, noting his pursuit of dialogue with the Palestinians. Those
negotiations continue under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
though differences remain wide.
“He was bound to the land. He knew that the land must be protected.
And he understood above all else that our existence is predicated on our
ability to protect ourselves by ourselves,” Netanyahu told his cabinet
on Sunday after ministers stood for a minute’s silence as a mark of
honor.
Many Israelis will remember Sharon as a brilliant but unpredictable
military leader who fought in the 1948 war of Israel’s founding and went
on to earn a reputation for trigger-happy disobedience.
But he was also hailed in Israel for the crucial counter-attack
across the Suez Canal that helped to turn the tide of the 1973 Middle
East war with Egypt and Syria.
In 1983 an Israeli state inquiry found Sharon, who as defense
minister engineered Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and war against
Palestinian guerrillas there, indirectly responsible for the Sabra and
Shatila killings, and he was forced to resign his post.
“The Palestinian people remember what Sharon did and tried to do to
our people and their dream of forming a state,” Wael Abu Yousef, a
senior member of the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organisation, told
Reuters.
Palestinians in Gaza handed out sweets to passersby and motorists in celebration of Sharon’s passing.
“We have become more confident in victory with the departure of this
tyrant (Sharon),” said Sami Abu Zuhri, spokesman for Hamas, the Islamist
faction governing Gaza.
MEMORIAL
A memorial service will be held in parliament on Monday before an
afternoon funeral at Sycamore Farm. Israeli generals will serve as
pallbearers.
Among foreign dignitaries expected to attend the ceremonies are U.S.
Vice President Joe Biden, Israeli-Palestinian peace mediator and former
British prime minister Tony Blair, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier and delegates from Russia, Canada, Spain and the Czech
Republic.
“As Israel says goodbye to Prime Minister Sharon, we join with the
Israeli people in honoring his commitment to his country,” said U.S.
President Barack Obama.
“We reaffirm our unshakable commitment to Israel’s security and our
appreciation for the enduring friendship between our two countries,”
said Obama, whose relationship with Netanyahu has been strained by
issues such as Iran’s nuclear program and Israeli settlement-building.
Palestinians also accuse Sharon of sparking their “Intifada” with a
provocative visit to the al Aqsa mosque plaza in Jerusalem’s Old City in
2000, a year before he took power. He further angered them with a crushing army sweep of self-rule areas
of the West Bank in 2002 after a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings
and with his siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah
compound.
But Sharon surprised many by withdrawing soldiers and settlers from
Gaza in 2005 under a policy of “disengagement” from conflict and a
pursuit of dialogue with the Palestinians.
The pullout, however, led to Gaza’s takeover by Hamas, which, unlike
the West Bank-based President Mahmoud Abbas, spurns co-existence with
Israel and often trades fire with it.
Sharon was resented by many settlers who once saw him as their
champion. Israeli media quoted lawmaker Orit Strouk of the Jewish Home,
an ultranationalist party in Netanyahu’s coalition, as thanking God that
Sharon was removed from power before he could order West Bank
withdrawals. The remarks sparked outrage and she later apologized.
As Sharon’s finance minister in 2005, Netanyahu quit in protest at
the Gaza plan. Netanyahu points to Hamas’s rise as vindication of his
stance.
A lifelong farmer renowned for his big appetite, Sharon was known as
“the Bulldozer”, in part for his headlong pursuit of hardline policies
that included the settlement expansion in territory Israel captured in
the 1967 Middle East war.
New York (AFP) - Giant US retailer
Target said Friday that up to 110 million customers have had their
personal data stolen in a data breach, sharply raising its initial
estimate.
The number of
people affected represented one in three Americans, and the scope of the
information stolen was much broader than originally thought, Target
admitted.
Target initially
reported on December 19 that payment card data of some 40 million
customers had been obtained by hackers during the year-end holiday
shopping season.
The stolen information included credit and debit card data, customer names and PIN (personal identification data) numbers.
On
Friday, Target said that its investigation had revealed that hackers
also stole a second batch of data that included names, mailing
addresses, phone numbers or email addresses for up to 70 million people.
"This theft is not a new breach; these are two distinct thefts as part of the same breach," a Target spokesman told AFP.
"The 70 million guests impacted by this new development are separate from the 40 million number that was previously shared."
Target chief executive Gregg Steinhafel said the company was "truly sorry" for the data breach.
Target
said consumers would have "zero liability" due to any fraudulent
charges arising from the theft. It offered one year of free credit
monitoring protection.
Target
is cooperating with an investigation led by the Justice Department and
Secret Service. A group of state attorneys general have launched a
parallel investigation aimed at protecting victims.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman called the new disclosure "deeply troubling."
"Consumers
in New York and around the country expect and deserve companies that
protect their personal information when they shop on their websites and
in their stores," Schneiderman said in a statement.
Target said the news of the data theft, which came at the peak of the Christmas shopping season, impacted sales in its stores.
It said it now expects fourth-quarter comparable store sales to decline 2.5 percent from its prior forecast of flat sales.
The
company said it may need to take a charge for expenses related to the
data breach to cover potential costs, including reimbursements for
credit card fraud, liabilities from civil litigation, government
investigations and enforcement proceedings.
Target shares shed 1.1 percent to $62.62 on Friday.
