Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum sent out a press release on Friday encouraging Floridians and other consumers to monitor their credit card statements to ensure their personal information hasn't been compromised as a result of a data breach that impacted Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and may affect up to 21,000 Floridians.
Wyndham recently reported to the Attorney General's Office it contacted affected consumers in December and notified them that unauthorized access to Wyndham systems had potentially compromised the personal data on their debit and credit cards.
At this time, Wyndham believes no criminal identity theft related to the use of the consumer data has been identified.
Attorney General McCollum encouraged consumers to be vigilant and to report any suspicious contacts they receive or activity on their accounts to law enforcement. Affected consumers are encouraged to take the precautionary steps outlined in the Wyndham letter, including obtaining a free fraud alert from one of the credit reporting agencies.
For more information, consumers may visit Wyndham's website.
Here's an excerpt of their notice explaining how it occured;
In mid-September, 2008, our company discovered that a sophisticated hacker penetrated the computer systems of one of the Wyndham Hotels and Resorts (WHR) franchised hotels. By going through the centralized network connection, the hacker was then able to access and download information from several, but not all, of the other WHR properties and create a unique file containing payment card information of a small percentage of our WHR customers. The incident did not affect any of the other branded hotels in the Wyndham Hotel Group system. We deeply regret that this incident occurred and are doing everything we can to notify our customers directly, to address and remedy the problem, and, more importantly, to ensure that it does not reoccur.
The Attorney General also made note that if anyone calls you requesting personal information claiming it is related to the breach, the call is a scam and should be reported to the Attorney General's Citizens Services Hotline at 1-866-9-No SCAM (1-866-966-7226).
To get copies of your free credit reports see earlier blog. Don't wait to be notified that you've become a victim. You can lessen the blow of an identity theft by taking precautionary steps BEFORE a theft occurs. Taking action now -can save you time, money and aggravation later!
Think you might be affected by a Data Breach?
Take proactive measures to lessen the impact of an identity theft -before the worst occurs!
See earlier tips & blogs:
Are you one of millions to be notified your data has been stolen?
Do you know what Steps to Take...?.
Wyndham recently reported to the Attorney General's Office it contacted affected consumers in December and notified them that unauthorized access to Wyndham systems had potentially compromised the personal data on their debit and credit cards.
At this time, Wyndham believes no criminal identity theft related to the use of the consumer data has been identified.
Attorney General McCollum encouraged consumers to be vigilant and to report any suspicious contacts they receive or activity on their accounts to law enforcement. Affected consumers are encouraged to take the precautionary steps outlined in the Wyndham letter, including obtaining a free fraud alert from one of the credit reporting agencies.
For more information, consumers may visit Wyndham's website.
Here's an excerpt of their notice explaining how it occured;
In mid-September, 2008, our company discovered that a sophisticated hacker penetrated the computer systems of one of the Wyndham Hotels and Resorts (WHR) franchised hotels. By going through the centralized network connection, the hacker was then able to access and download information from several, but not all, of the other WHR properties and create a unique file containing payment card information of a small percentage of our WHR customers. The incident did not affect any of the other branded hotels in the Wyndham Hotel Group system. We deeply regret that this incident occurred and are doing everything we can to notify our customers directly, to address and remedy the problem, and, more importantly, to ensure that it does not reoccur.
The Attorney General also made note that if anyone calls you requesting personal information claiming it is related to the breach, the call is a scam and should be reported to the Attorney General's Citizens Services Hotline at 1-866-9-No SCAM (1-866-966-7226).
To get copies of your free credit reports see earlier blog. Don't wait to be notified that you've become a victim. You can lessen the blow of an identity theft by taking precautionary steps BEFORE a theft occurs. Taking action now -can save you time, money and aggravation later!
Think you might be affected by a Data Breach?
Take proactive measures to lessen the impact of an identity theft -before the worst occurs!
See earlier tips & blogs:
Are you one of millions to be notified your data has been stolen?
Do you know what Steps to Take...?.
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