Hackers steal credit card info from thrift store chain

By Rudy Takala, Rudy Takala

Published December 20, 2015

America's Thrift Stores, a donations-based thrift store chain that supports Christian ministries, announced this week that it lost customers' credit card information after it was breached by hackers based in Eastern Europe.

"This breach allowed criminals from Eastern Europe unauthorized access to some payment card numbers," company CEO Ken Sobaski said in a statement. "We urge all shoppers — whether at our stores or others — to check their credit and debit card statements every month for any fraudulent charges."

Credit cards affected were those used at the store between Sept. 1-27. The company didn't state whether the stolen information had been used, and assured customers that only credit card information was affected, saying that the U.S. Secret Service had investigated and "do not believe any customer names, phone numbers, addresses or email addresses were compromised."

However, cybersecurity writer Brian Krebs reported on Tuesday that his banking sources "have seen a pattern of fraud on cards all used at America's Thrift Stores locations indicating that thieves have been able to use the data stolen from the compromised point-of-sale devices to counterfeit new cards."