Merchants Warning Customers About Possible Spam Attacks After Marketing Firm Security Breech-Truth!
Summary of eRumor:
Several companies who use the services of the online marketing firm Epsilon, based in Dallas Texas, are sending out warnings to their customers that their email addresses may have been stolen in what could be the biggest online security breech in history.
The Truth:
The warning is real.
According to an April 4, 2011 USA Today article the stolen data was limited to 2% of Epsilon’s stored information consisting of customer names and email addresses. The email marketing firm services 2,500 large companies.
Capital One, JP Morgan Chase, the Marriott International Hotels, Kroger Supermarkets, Barclaycard, Citigroup, Target, Best Buy and Abe Books are just some of the companies who have sent millions of emails warning their customers to be on the look out for fraudulent messages phishing for information. Phishing is the illegal means of getting personal or financial information via the Internet. Click here for more information on phishing.
If you get an unsolicited email about an online account it is always a safe practice never to click the links in such emails. Always conduct transactions directly from the Internet browser by manually typing in the location of the internet site. Many phishing emails contain links that will send users to cleverly disguised websites that may look official but in fact are faked to trick people out of the credit card numbers or account log in information.
The Better Business Bureau also issued a warning that some forwarded emails may contain virus infected attachments or links which could lead to possible malware infection. This serves as a good reminder to make sure that all virus protection software is current.
updated 04/06/11