Blippy.com security breach ensnares Michigan firefighter

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We told you earlier Friday how a controversial new website that shares users’ credit card and online purchases with their friends on the Internet appears to have done a bit too much sharing.

A glitch on Blippy.com exposed credit and debit card numbers belonging to four people and associated with nearly 200 credit and debit card transactions in Google search results. Each result displayed a debit or credit card transaction, the amount spent, the location and full card number.

Blippy.com founder Philip Kaplan repaired the breach Friday and said his company was taking steps to make sure it never happened again.

One of the unlucky folks who had his debit card number exposed to the world was Bradd Dantuma, a 38-year-old firefighter from Grand Rapids, Mich.

Dantuma said friends on Twitter alerted him to the breach Friday morning. He e-mailed Blippy.com and got an apology and an explanation from founder Ashvin Kumar.

“It was kind of a shocker,� Dantuma said. “It’s one of those sites you sign up for and forget about. Luckily nothing out of the ordinary has popped up on my card.�

Dantuma joined Blippy.com about six months ago at the recommendation of a friend. He hasn’t spent much time on the site since.

Now he says he canceled his debit card and he’s going to cancel his Blippy.com account. But the incident has not turned him off other social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

“I definitely won’t be going back to anything that has you put your credit card in for people to follow,� Dantuma said. “But it doesn’t really shake my confidence. These things happen here and there. Unfortunately it had to happen to me.�

-- Jessica Guynn