Over 45 Million Customers Credit Card Information Stolen

A warning has gone out today to the customers of retailer TK Maxx and TJ Max.

The warning was issued to customers located in the U.K., U.S, Canada, Ireland and Puerto Rico.

The parent company of the European and North American branches TJX has been hacked. The hackers managed to steal the credit card details of no less than 45.7 million U.K. and North American customers.

The company reported the serious incident to the U.S watchdogs and said that they still did not know how bad the situation actually was and how badly this has affected its customers.

One positive note that the company revealed about the credit card details theft, is that a large number of the card numbers stolen were expired or their data had been masked. However, this does not pertain to all of the credit card details stolen and customers should be aware of the situation.

On a bad note, the company did say that it may be possible they will never know exactly what was contained in the stolen files. This is because the hacker used technology that blocked TJX from seeing what was taken.

The credit card theft has been taking place since 2005 and is believe to have lasted for an 18-month period. The information was stolen from two separate TJX system locations. One is located in Watford, Herfordshire in the U.K and the other in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is believed that the information contained details of transactions as far back as 2002.

It is hoped by the company that the information taken will not affect most people. When Sandra Quinn, from the Association of Payment Clearing Services spoke to the BBC she said, "If they were doing transactions with TK Maxx between those dates they will generally now have a brand new credit or debit card in their wallet, so they can be sure that it will be the old details of their card that has been compromised, not their current card." Quinn also pointed out that if customers discover they have been affected by the incident they would be able to get their money back.

TJK fist became aware of the serious situation three months ago. The crime was reported two months ago. It is still unclear what to extent of damage is and there are still many investigations going on to find out. A representative from TJX, Sherry Lang, said, "There is a lot of information we don't know, and may never be able to know, which is why this investigation has been so laborious."

The company stated that its U.K chip and pin customers were probably not affected by the fraud, as this information is not kept at the Watford location.

Customers in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rice maybe affected in a number of ways. The U.S theft included information about TJ Maxx, Bob's, Marshalls, Winners and HomeSense customers.

All customer of TJX have been asked to review his or her credit and debit card statements in search of any unauthorised transactions. If something is found they should report it to the company.

The chairman of TJX said, "We are deeply concerned about this event and the difficulties it may cause our customers." "Since discovering the crime, we have been working diligently to further protect our customers and strengthen the security of our computer systems."

Sources
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6508983.stm
http://money.guardian.co.uk/scamsandfraud/story/0,,2046466,00.html
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=personalFinanceNews&storyID=2007-03-30T084556Z_01_NOA031537_RTRUKOC_0_BRITAIN-TKMAXX.xml