This notice is to inform our customers of a security incident at TAD
Gear. We recently learned that our database was illegally accessed from
an external source, and it appears that some customer data were taken,
which may include customer names, contact information and credit card
data. The possibility of a security breach came to our attention when
certain customers notified us that unauthorized charges had appeared on
their credit cards. Upon learning of the potential breach of security,
TAD Gear immediately initiated an investigation, and took corrective
steps based on the advice of an internet security firm. We have also
contacted law enforcement.
If you purchased merchandise
from TAD Gear on-line between August 6, 2009 and November 16, 2009, and
the credit card used to purchase that merchandise is still valid, in
order to protect yourself from the possibility of identity theft or
misuse of your credit card information, we recommend that you
immediately contact the issuer of that credit card and close your
account. Tell them that your account may have been compromised. If you
want to open a new account, ask your credit card issuer to give you a
PIN or password, as this will help control access to the account.
In addition, we recommend that you place a fraud alert on your
credit files. A fraud alert lets creditors know to contact you before
opening new accounts. Just call any one of the three credit reporting
agencies at a number below. This will let you automatically place fraud
alerts with all of the agencies. You will then receive letters from all
of them, with instructions on how to get a free copy of your credit
report from each.
Experian Equifax TransUnion
888 397 3742
http://www.experian.com
866-640-2273
http://www.equifax.com
877-701-5276
http://www.transunion.com
When you receive your credit reports, look them over carefully.
Look for accounts you did not open. Look for inquiries from creditors
that you did not initiate. And look for personal information, such as
your home address and Social Security number, which is not accurate. If
you see anything you do not understand, call the credit reporting
agency at the telephone number on the report.
If you do find suspicious activity on your credit reports, call
your local police or sheriff’s office and file a police report of
identity theft. Get a copy of the police report. You may need to give
copies of the police report to creditors to clear up your records. Even
if you do not find any signs of fraud on your reports, we recommend
that you check your credit report every three months for the next year.
Just call one of the numbers above to order your reports and keep the
fraud alert in place.
For more information on identity theft, we suggest that you
visit the web site of the California Office of Privacy Protection at
http://www.privacy.ca.gov, or the Federal Trade Commission at
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/micros
ites/idtheft.
If there is anything TAD Gear can do to assist you, please email us at
action@tadgear.com, a special email address that we have set up to help
answer your questions.
On a going-forward basis, in order to help assure the security of
your information, all users will be required to recreate their
usernames and change passwords upon logging onto our newly redesigned,
TAD Gear website. Please note that the password change process is only
initiated when you come to the TAD Gear website and as a result an
email is sent to you. Do not respond to any other unsolicited emails
regarding password changes from TAD Gear. TAD Gear will not contact you
by email regarding a password change unless you initiate such a change
on the TAD Gear website in accordance with the instructions above.
We are sorry for any inconvenience that this might have caused
you. We take the protection of our customers' personal information very
seriously. TAD Gear is making additional, significant investments in
enhancing the safety and security features on our website so that you
may feel confident using it. While no company can completely prevent
unauthorized access to data, we are committed to ensuring that our data
is protected by the highest levels of security.
If you have any questions or need further information regarding this incident, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Please note that no replies will be available from the TAD Gear Staff
in this venue for legal purposes related to our ongoing investigation
with Federal Law Enforcement Agencies tasked with cyber-crime.
Thank you.