Really, Really Tragic

That's some really, really bad business that went down Saturday afternoon in Tucson. People do such stupid things. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of those involved.

Hobby Search Gives Away Customers Credit Card Numbers

One of our competitors in Japan (Hobby Search) sent this notice out to their customers recently, forcing thousands of people to cancel and have reissued their credit cards used to purchase Anime figures and merchandise directly from them in Japan:

Dear Hobby Search customer:

We are writing to let you know of a hacker or hackers that penetrated our computer system and accessed customer data including credit card information.

At the time of writing, we do not know of any of this information being available publicly. It is important to us that you, the customer, do not experience any monetary damages because of this incident, and have provided the information of all the cards that may have been involved in this incident to each of the credit card companies so that they may monitor the activity on these cards. If you have any concerns about the security of your card, please contact the card company (via the number on the back of your credit card).

Also, although we have switched to a more secure credit card transaction system that only stores the last four digits of your card on our databases on July 7, 2010, we have disabled credit card payments indefinitely.

The credit cards involved in this incident are those used in orders prior to July 7, 2010 (a maximum of 23,526 cards), and we are notifying those affected with this email.

The information that may have been accessed - Credit card numbers, expiration dates, cardholder names

We do not store personal verification passwords or security codes on our databases, so these have not been accessed. Again, we have switched to a more secure credit transaction system on July 7 that only stored the last four digits of those cards and cannot be abused by a third party. We are deeply sorry for any inconvenience or concern that this incident may have caused.

Toshiyuki Suzuki, my opposite number over at Hobby Search, cannot be pleased.

Now you all know it's a bit of a pain to re-enter your order data on our store site everytime you place an order with us - in fact, I write about it here on our FAQ - but when you do you can rest assured that because we don't maintain a public server that stores customer address and payment transaction data, the information that you give us can never be stolen or accessed by outside parties.

Anyone can tell you their public servers and/or payment platforms are secure, but are they really? How can they ever be sure? We'll, we're sure here, because we don't ever give hackers a chance.

Bootleg Naruto, Bleach, and Death Note Merchandise Notice

You guys already know we only carry licensed merchandise, which is why I'm always explaining why we don't have so many things many other stores seem to carry. Here is an important notice from Great Eastern that come over last night regarding bootleg Naruto, Bleach, and Death Note merchandise:

December 17, 2009

RE: GREAT EASTERN'S NARUTO, NARUTO SHIPPUDUN, BLEACH AND DEATH NOTE ACCESSORIES

VIZ Media, LLC and/or its affiliated entities (collectively, "VIZ MEDIA") are the exclusive licensees of consumer products distributed in North America for the animated television properties NARUTO, NARUTO SHIPPUDUN, BLEACH and DEATH NOTE.

This letter is to inform you that GREAT EASTERN Entertainment Co. ("GREAT EASTERN") is an authorized U.S. licensee of VIZ MEDIA of accessory products using characters and trademarks of the animated television properties NARUTO,NARUTO SHIPPUDUN, BLEACH and DEATH NOTE. These accessory products include the categories identified in the attached EXHIBIT A

On November 25, 2009, the Consumer Products Safety Commision issued a recall notice citing unauthorized infringing pendants featuring symbols from NARUTO, BLEACH and DEATH NOTE ("Product Recall"). A copy of the Product Recall is available online at http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml10/10049.html.

These recalled products were NOT from GREAT EASTERN but from an infringing company called TEAM WORK TRADING based in Los Angeles, California. GREAT EASTERN is in no way related to TEAM WORK TRADINGING or to the Product Recall, and TEAM WORK TRADING is not an authorized licensee of VIZ MEDIA.

For more information regarding the authorized GREAT EASTERN Products listed in EXHIBIT A, please contact Dina Abd El Alim at (310)-638-5058, ext. 259 or support@geanimation.com.

A scan of the original Press Release can be found HERE. This sort of stuff has been showing up all over the place recently, and a lot of merchants probably don't even know it's bootleged (but rest assured, many do). Caveat Imperator. :-)

A Novel Approach...

CNN reports:

'Investigators in Colorado say they have broken up a massive methamphetamine ring in the Denver area that distributed pounds of the dangerous drug every week and laundered the profits using collectible comic books.

While arresting the alleged ringleaders, brothers Aaron and Alfonzo Castro, law enforcement officers seized about 100 boxes of first-edition collectible comic books. Investigators say one title alone is worth $3,500 and the total collection of comics is worth half a million dollars.

"It appeared they were working on a start-up company for high-end comic books," said Don Quick, the district attorney in Adams County near Denver.

Quick said the seized comic books included some first-edition Superman and Batman titles. The fragile, vintage comics were stored in plastic bags for protection.'

Tam says it's probably the "Worst Dope Smuggling Plan. Evar":

"The case was broken open when a detective noticed Jeremy Blascowicz grinding his teeth, constantly tugging at his neck beard, and talking at a high rate of speed for three hours straight about why Secret Wars was, like, a million billion times better than Crisis on Infinite Earths."

At least it wasn't first edition Saint Marie and Harukaze Bitter Bop manga volumes... HEH.