Too late for me as I ordered "Over-Run" as well, but I haven't been hit yet. Probably just a matter of time so I'll ask for a new debit card number from my credit union before it can happen. I still have to renew my membership, but I'll us a Visa for that, it's more expensive, but it's safe. At least one person has said that they've used a new card recently to renew and that one was already hit.

What's discouraging is that they haven't addressed this at all on their own club forum, but have on other fan sites. There's talk of people trying to get Hasbro involved to put major pressure on FP.

Emerje

Ugh hopefully this will be fixed soon so I can order the Footloose figure from them and its due in March!

The response from Fub Publications has been rather lacking but they did put up information on how to report fraud incidents to them. I copied the info and put it up on JBL:

http://joebattlelines.com/2012/02/20/g-i-joe-collectors-club-addresses-c...

Granted, they're not accepting responsibility for anything but that's not unusual from Fun Pub. The most shocking part of this is that cards that were both phoned in as well as used online have been affected including some that were used AFTER their "audit" began.

Be safe, people.

Wow, thanks for the heads up. I was seriously considering joining up with the GI Joe Club for the upcoming Joe subscription. After the account problems I had with Matty, I'm definitely not getting into the Joe sub if there's any chance of a repeat there.

Looks like I'll be completely sub-less this year. Wonder if Big Bad will be carrying the subscription figures as they do with MOTU...

They got me. I renewed my membership and ordered the exclusives and a few days later got hit by purchases on my debit card for purchases in finland and the UK. Took several days to get money back, still having to change my info on may sites and bill pays, etc. Huge hassle and not even an apology from the club that I have spent thousands of dollars with over previous years. Not cool.

John

Same here. $1K attempted in UK cosmetics, and attempted Google ads. Luckily my card put the kabosh on. And FunPub sends an email w no acknowledgement, only a contending lecture. NOT cool.

I let my transformers club membership lapse this year after getting a new card. Looks like it made the right call.

Ugh looks like its going to be overpriced after market for the club figure this year. Funny this happens when they announce a subscription service this year!

Are all toy subscriptions cursed?

SM is definitely right on this one, the list at Hisstank of tfw2005 and hisstank members alone who have posted their cards getting hit is over 250. Mine was one as well. I got hit for three international transactions, and 4 more were attempted(first time I've ever been glad I didn't have any money in the account) in NY(Audio equipment), Singapore(presumably Lady-Boys), something called Swiss Global Clearing Acct and one in Vietnam. This isn't a matter of someone intercepting FunPub's transactions, their entire customer base's information was stolen and compromised. Members who never used their cards online, only ordering or renewing over the phone have been hit. And they keep all your information on file for years. The last purchase I made from the Club was in July of 2010.
The Clubs' complete denial of the situation being a security issue on their end, and their pi$$ poor handling of the fallout has made me believe that FunPub should no longer be granted the rights to the G.I.Joe and Transformers Conventions and fanclubs.
Their huge screw-up with the hotel accommodations for the New Orleans Joe Con was another massive fail, with them not even offering to pay the large difference or change fees because people had to change hotel reservations after having made them months ago. A more minor but still annoying offense was the Club's Dial-Tone 25th Anniversary style figure at last year's Con in Orlando. Paid members were supposed to be allowed to buy one(their were only a couple hundred made), but they were selling dealers multiples right in front of customers waiting in line. So people who had even gone so far as to purchase the "Golden Ticket" admission, supposed to guarantee access to all of the exclusives and had to pay for that privilege waaay in advance, went home without a Dial-Tone.
It's time for Hasbro to step in and force FunPub to either find some way to make it up to all their members, or drop their license.

As of now, ALL of the Fub Publications websites (both GIJoe & Transformers club) are down. To my knowledge there has been NO announcement of this entire situation via email to members nor has their been any announcement via the Club's social media channels. (FB or Twitter.)

It's pretty darned sad when the only news that most of us are hearing about this comes from fan sites and from members who have been hit by this widespread breach of security. Even on Facebook (which seems to be their most active channel) members have only had vague responses like "We're victims too" and "we're working on it".

It seems to me that Fun Publications has overstepped their capabilities in a HUGE way. Just look at 2012 thus far:

1. The Figure Subscription Service (FSS) sign-up has been printed in newsletters for two successive months but the sign-up has never actually occurred.
2. The convention dates and hotel were changed AFTER weeks of published announcements
3. The credit card fraud scandal hit and the only communications from Fun Pub have been a few reactionary remarks that "the issue isn't that widespread" or "we're victims here too"

In marketing, this is called "poor communication". In the real world, this is just called inept.

So there has been an update: http://tformers.com/transformers-fun-publications-updating-transformers-club/17254/news.html

Wonder if someone at FP reads the Buzz?

Yeah, that went down a day or two ago, it's back up again. Pete said they're making a statement or something about this soon, of course that was 2 days ago so I don't know how long he considers "soon".

Pete@BotCon 2/21/2012
"We will have more information pertaining to all of this shortly..."

We are spending a great deal of resources (as we should) to address this and are committed to making sure we are as secure as possible in todays world."

At least they've finally started doing something, but they're really draging their feet about it. Not sure how easily they can win people over again. Having something like this happen just before memberships are due and subscriptions can't be good for them.

Emerje

They finally made an official statement yesterday.

Hope they extend the renewal time is the store is down much longer, I still need to renew. My credit union really dragged their feet on canceling my card, finally did it Friday, but they said it might be more than a week before I see a replacement.

Emerje

Another update from FP, this one is Transformers Club related. Basically they said they aren't budging on the membership deadline which is kinda annoying, it's their fault people are hesitant to renew right away. On the bright side they're setting up a PDF with a club membership form so people can join/renew by check/MO. However, they still have to arrive on time so you're going to be at the mercy of the post office if you go that rout, the recommend not mailing it later that 3/9. And they're still mailing out Over-Run figures, and they're now mailing out T-shirt sets so that slows it down for the rest of us. Bah, why did I bother going with FedEx again? Oh, right, because it was only $1 more than the insanely overpriced USPS shipping. (We need an eye-roll smiley for times like this.)

Here's the full announcement:

Emerje

Looks like Im not going to renew this year, Im not doing a money order and I dont even mess with checks so looks like im screwed lol. Its alright the magazine sucks balls just would have been nice to add a Footloose to my ranks, will be checking ebay and amazon in a few months looks like

I think it's still worthwhile for the Transformers club if the free figure is one you want. Over-Run cost me about $64, $50 for the figure and the rest for shipping, but Runamuck is free with the $40 membership and free shipping. I don't really read the mag other than the back cover, but $40 total for an exclusive Transformer is a great buy.

Emerje

Fun Pub has now uploaded paper forms on their respective club websites for renewal. You have to mail those back in with a check or money order. If you're a Joe fan and want the Footloose figure, this all has to be done BY March 16th as the Club refuses to change their membership deadline.

Ah... customer service at its finest. They're the only game in town and they know it so why should they bother to accommodate their members in any fashion? Honestly-- it wouldn't be such a bad thing to see the GIJCC fold. They've been "less than customer friendly" for years and the bias toward the 12" product is obvious even though the majority of their membership is now composed of 1:18th members.

So do you have to be signed up by March 16 to get in on the GI Joe figure subscription service as well? Has there been any announcement at all when that will be up for grabs or any hint on the pricing?

I don't know for sure, but that doesn't sound likely. Usually things like that just require an active membership, join date doesn't matter. In fact I bet if you aren't a member and still wanted to subscribe there'll be a separate price that includes a new membership. They do the same thing with the con registrations and the club exclusives. Only real downside to not registering on time is you don't get this years incentive figure, but you do get the one for 2013.

Emerje

No word on the FSS right now. It would seem that it is off the table until Fun Pub can even figure out HOW the data was stolen in the first place. The most recent comments from them seems to indicate that it's all still a big mystery.

Bad things happen, and I don't really blame the club here. That being said, as a matter of practicality, I won't be using one of my credit cards for future purchases.
What I'll most likely do for the FSS is pick up a prepaid Visa gift card (which you can register with an address online) for the total of my purchase.. then, I'll just use that up buying the FSS and if some scumbag hacks it, there will be a zero balance on the card so they can have fun with that.