Report: Y2K Glitch Causing Credit-Card Errors

from Bloomberg News

RESTON, Va. (Jan. 7) -- CyberCash Inc.'s credit-card verification software used by about 100,000 merchants has a Year 2000 related glitch that's causing some credit- and debit-card purchases to be recorded twice, the Wall Street Journal reported.

A CyberCash spokeswoman said about 50 merchants told the company this week they hadn't updated software to fix the problem, as CyberCash had been urging them to do since the spring; the company didn't know how many other merchants may have the faulty software.

Credit-card processors noticed an increase in duplicate transactions Wednesday, but said they were catching the errors and consumers shouldn't worry about excessive billings, the paper said.

CyberCash is the most widely used online payment processing service.

(WSJ 1/7 p.A6)

Jan/07/2000 6:50

-- Cyndi Crowder (cyncrowder@aol.com), January 07, 2000

Answers

Another article related to this from Homer on TB2000

Y2K glitch causes duplicate credit card transactions

The problems afflict retailers that didn't upgrade card-swipe devices that verify credit status

Friday, January 7, 2000

By Steve Woodward of The Oregonian staff

Y2K problems are causing a small number of credit and debit card customers in Oregon and worldwide to be billed multiple times for the same purchase.

Customers shouldn't see duplicate transactions on their bills, however, thanks to safeguard systems used by credit card companies to catch and delete duplicates.

The problems afflict an unknown number of retail merchants who failed to upgrade software that allows card-swipe devices to verify a customer's credit worthiness. Most merchants who use the software, ICVerify, have successfully installed the Y2K-compliant version since it became available last spring. Others opted to wait until it failed.

"We hoped that everybody would upgrade their software, but not everybody did," said Sydney Rubin, a spokeswoman for CyberCash, a large electronic commerce firm based in Reston, Va., that makes ICVerify.

"Last year, we did mailings; we sent e-mail; we even phoned some of them."

The problems are not widespread. CyberCash had received 50 calls from merchants by Thursday. Rubin said Visa International, MasterCard and other credit card companies pinpointed the problem when a "larger-than-normal number" of merchants reported trouble with the software.

In Oregon, Wells Fargo Bank has about 60 merchant customers that are having problems, said Tom Unger, a bank spokesman. He said the bank expects the total number of affected merchants to be fewer than 1 percent of the bank's total customer base.

Unger advised customers who see duplicate transactions on their bills to call the customer service phone number on the backs of the credit cards. He said Wells Fargo would waive overdraft or over-limit fees for customers who overdraw their accounts as a result of the computer glitch.

Bank of America Oregon had few details about its situation Thursday.

"We believe it may have some impact," said Rich Brown, bank spokesman.

CyberCash's Rubin said the affected transactions are repeatedly posted to the cardholder's account every 24 hours. Third-party companies that process the accounts have systems in place that automatically eliminate duplicates, she said.

Merchants can still update their software by visiting CyberCash's Web site, www.cybercash.com, or by calling a toll-free customer service number, 800-900-6133.

The problem can affect virtually any credit or debit card, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Diners and Carte Blanche.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), January 07, 2000

-- Sheri Nakken (wncy2k@nccn.net), January 07, 2000.

SILICON INVESTOR - Friday, Jan 7, 2000 2:41 PM ET

From: Jay Lowe [VP R&D - Parallel Technologies & President, Quantum Software, Inc. - Redmond, WA]

Y2K, eh? ... When our accounting people started processing credit card orders via IC verify on Monday, all the card numbers came back invalid. Working through another channel, we've heard that a huge number of double and triple charges are occuring via IC verify and Cybercash.

It appears from the IC Verify website http://www.icverify.com that upgrades are required to both the client-side (PC or stand-alone box) and the institution-side payment processing engine. That's a lot of nodes available for screw-up ... in exactly the wrong hands.

Anybody know anything more about this?

Probably a good idea to scrutinize your credit card statements this month. ;-)

http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/msgs.gsp?msgid=12493658

-- (Lurker@SiliconInvestor.com), January 07, 2000.

Here's Cyber Cash's Official Statement:

CyberCash, Inc. Addie Bourne 703-715-7822

Ignition Strategic Communications Sydney Rubin 202-244-1200

Statement from CyberCash on Payment Software and Y2K ALAMEDA, CALIF.

(January 6, 2000) - CyberCash, Inc. today reminded merchants using payment software ICVERIFY, NetVERIFY, PCVERIFY and EZCharge that they must upgrade to Y2K compliant versions to avoid problems in processing transactions.

CyberCash noted that some merchants failed to upgrade their payment software, despite efforts by the company to inform them that a Y2K upgrade was required.

Beginning in December 1998, CyberCash posted information about the Year 2000 issue on its Web site (www.cybercash.com). CyberCash first notified users in February 1999 that upgrades would be required and urged software users to return to the Web site periodically as upgrades became available.

CyberCash also mailed postcards to registered customers and processors informing them of the need to upgrade to Y2K compliant software products. The upgrades were free and available through an 800-number or were downloadable from the Web (http://www.cybercash.com/cybercash/y2k/y2k_upgrades.html).

Unfortunately, some merchants did not download and install the free Y2K compliant upgrades and these merchants are now experiencing problems of duplicate transactions associated with the year 2000 rollover.

Merchants using Windows version 2.25 or higher or those using DOS or UNIX products 6.63 or higher are Y2K compliant and should not have any difficulties.

CyberCash once again reminds merchants to visit our Web site to download the Y2K software to avoid any transaction processing difficulties, or call 1-800-900-6133.

To see this on-line:

http://www.cybercash.com/cybercash/company/news /releases/2000/00jan6y2kstatement.html

See the other forum links on this subject:

Y2K hits cash card - First Data Merchant Systems

http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl? msg_id=002G4f

Major Multi-system Credit Card Processing Y2K Failure

http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl? msg_id=002FTO

-- Jennifer Bunker (jen@bunkergroup.com), January 10, 2000.