Earlier this year, it was suspected that a breach occurred at the video game retailer GameStop. At that point, it was suspected and under investigation, but not confirmed by the company. This month, however, those suspicious were indeed confirmed when the video game site Kotaku reported that some number of GameStop customers received letters notifying them of the possible theft of their credit card information as a result of shopping at the company’s online store.
Numbers have not been released from GameStop, but considering the long timeframe in which the intruders were in the system, it’s likely to be many. The dates of the incident were between April 10, 2016 and February 9, 2017. That’s quite a long time for someone to be lurking in a system. Names, addresses, and credit card information were stolen and it is believed that some of the three or four digit codes on the cards were also captured before the information was encrypted.
Keep in mind this happened on the company’s website Gamestop.com and not at the retail locations. Any customers who visited that site and made, OR ATTEMPTED to make a purchase during the above timeframe should monitor payment card purchases with an eagle eye for at least the next year, or until a new card is issued by the financial institution. If anything at all looks suspicious, contact the card issuer immediately.
By taking care of potential fraudulent charges immediately, it costs both you and the issuer less to resolve them. That’s better for everyone.
This latest breach isn’t helping GameStop’s business at all. The company announced earlier this year that it would be closing somewhere around 150 of its stores.
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