Regular readers of Scamicide may remember the October 22nd Scam of the Day in which I informed you about a data breach at Staples, the  popular office supply store.  The data breach is now known to have affected 115 stores around the country and to have been going on between August 10, 2014 through September 16, 2014 although at two stores, the data breach actually began in July.  The hackers were able to get into the cash registers and terminals that handle credit card and debit card purchases.  Included in the compromised information were customers’ names, card numbers, card expiration dates and card verification codes.  Staples has now also disclosed that the data breach took information from as many as 1.6 million cards from 115 specific stores around the country.   Here is a link to a list of the affected stores and the dates during which the data breach was active.  If you shopped at Staples during the summer you should check the list to see if you shopped at one of the stores affected by the data breach.

Click to access List%20of%20Impacted%20Stores.pdf

TIPS

As always, this is a reminder to shoppers not to use their debit cards for shopping due to the less protective laws pertaining to fraudulent use of your debit card.  Credit cards are the much preferred method to make purchases at stores and be most protected from fraudulent purchases and data breaches.  Staples is offering free credit monitoring services to affected customers.  For more information about enrolling in the free credit monitoring services if you were an affected customer, go to Staple’s website at

Click to access Notification%20and%20Customer%20Resources.pdf