Montgomery Ward Doesn’t Tell Shoppers of Credit Thefts
Direct Marketing Services, which owns the old but familiar chain of Montgomery Ward stores, failed to inform its online shoppers that their credit information was stolen. Hackers had recently broke into the companies database of customers, accessing their credit files and spending exorbitant amounts of money through identity theft. Sensitive information such as credit card numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and security codes were compromised. As many as 51,000 people might be affected.
While Direct Marketing Services did inform the major financial institutions such as Visa and Mastercard of the situation, it did not report the occurrences to the consumers, as required by many states in the U.S. under law. Credit bureaus such as Experian, Transunion and Equifax issue credit reports that consumers can reference to check whether or not their credit score and history have been victims of identity theft or fraud. So if you’ve ever bought anything online through Montgomery Ward or any of their subsidiaries and affiliates, please check go and get a free credit report to verify that everything is normal.
