If you’ve made a credit card or debit card purchase at a Barnes & Noble store recently, check your bank statements carefully for unauthorized charges or withdrawals. The New York Times reports that hackers stole customer credit-card information at 63 locations across the country. Barnes & Noble discovered the breach in September but kept it quiet so the Feds could investigate. The hackers apparently broke into the keypads in front of registers where customers enter their PIN numbers. Barnes & Noble has removed all keypads.
It’s a good idea to change your PIN numbers — and also your computer passwords — often.
It’s also a good idea to check your credit history on a regular basis. As I wrote on NYC on the Cheap, Wells Fargo is offering FREE credit history reports through November 15, 2012, both online and in person at a branch office.
Evelyn Kanter
Evelyn Kanter is an award-winning journalist who has been reporting on good deals, and warning about bad ones, for longer than she cares to admit publicly. A native and lifelong New Yorker, she helped launch the “Sales and Bargains” column in New York Magazine, and was the first consumer reporter for CBS News and for WABC TV “Eyewitness News”. She’s the author or editor of more than a dozen travel guidebooks and apps, including Peaceful Places New York City, and owns and operates NYC On The Cheap and EcoXplorer. A long-time tree-hugger, Evelyn also writes about green travel, green cars and saving the green in your wallet, for national and regional magazines and newspapers, including a column syndicated by Motor Matters.
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