If you’re a GameStop customer, you may want to check your credit card bill

Why it matters to you

If you’ve shopped at GameStop between August of 2016 and February of 2017, you may be at risk for credit card fraud as a result of a GameStop breach.

GameStop customers, beware. The retailer has confirmed that your credit card information may have been stolen. This weekend, the game purveyor released a statement noting that it “recently received notification from a third party that it believed payment card data from cards used on the GameStop.com website was being offered for sale on a website.” The company assured customers, however, that it hired a “leading security firm” the same day in order to investigate the claims. “GameStop has and will continue to work non-stop to address this report and take appropriate measures to eradicate any issue that may be identified,” the retailer said.

GameStop sent affected customers an email earlier this week, admitting that hackers could have made away with names, addresses, and credit card information from just about anyone who “placed or attempted to place orders on our website from August 10, 2016 to February 9, 2017.”

The email continued, “We are notifying you because you placed or attempted to place an order on http://www.GameStop.com during this time period using a payment card ending in [number].”

The security blog KrebsOnSecurity actually noted that a breach had taken place as early as April of this year, and reported that information as granular as credit card CVVs (the three-digit security codes on your cards) was compromised. This was particularly concerning because online retailers aren’t supposed to store CVV data, but if hackers have malicious software, they can actually copy the data before it gets encrypted and processed.

 “We regret any concern this situation may cause for our customers,” GameStop concluded. “GameStop would like to remind its customers that it is always advisable to monitor payment card account statements for unauthorized charges. If you identify such a charge, report it immediately to the bank that issued the card because payment card network rules generally state that cardholders are not responsible for unauthorized charges that are timely reported.”