A chain of dry cleaners in Connecticut is warning customers about a potential data breach.
Swiss Cleaners, which has eight locations in Connecticut, alerted customers that hackers accessed cardholder names, card numbers, expiration dates and verification codes.
"We believe that an unauthorized person was able to install a program on a server in our payment card system that was designed to make a copy of payment card data as it was being routed through our system to our payment process,” the company said in an online statement.
The data breach affects all eight Swiss Cleaners locations in Connecticut. The company warned that any card used at any of their locations between December 2014 and October of 2015 "could have been captured."
A Coventry man learned someone racked up $700 in charges on his credit card, he believes after he swiped his card at Swiss Cleaners.
Philip only wants to use his first name, but he told the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters the fraudulent purchases were made at stores in Massachusetts.
Several hundred dollars was spent at various liquor stores, which was a red flag because Philip said doesn’t drink alcohol. He suspected his credit card information had been stolen at Swiss Cleaners right away.
Investigations
“This credit card, I don't use often and the last place I used it was here at Swiss Cleaners,” Philip said.
He said he questioned an employee of the cleaners who advised him to call a number for the Swiss Cleaners Response Line.
“You don’t have to be out in the street to be robbed anymore,” Philip said.
Coventry police said they are seeing a rise in fraud and identity theft. They urge people to be vigilant in protecting their information.
“To say it is an epidemic would be an understatement,” Sgt. Michael Hicks of the Coventry Police Department said.
He urges anyone who thinks they might be a victim of credit card fraud to file a report with their local police department.
If you suspect your card was compromised at one of the stores, you can call the Swiss Cleaners Response Line at 1-888-760-4869.
