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Have you used a travel website to book a trip in the past two years? Popular online booking website, Orbitz, has announced that its legacy site, Amextravel.com, was compromised due to a data breach. The period of exposure runs from January 1, 2016 through December 22, 2017. The company is reporting that up to 880,000 payment cards could’ve been exposed during the breach. Along with credit or debit card information being stolen, personal information such as the customer’s full name, date of birth, phone number, email address, physical and/or billing address and gender could also be among the information obtained by the hackers.

The company states it has found no evidence that other customer information was affected, such as travel itineraries or passports. However, in response to this latest breach, Orbitz is offering potential victims a free year of credit monitoring services.

If you are notified by the company as a potential victim, here are some steps you can take to minimize the damage:

  • Watch your accounts closely. Look for charges you do not recognize. If you see something strange, contact your credit or debit card company immediately.
  • Consider getting a new payment card. Having your credit or debit card company issue you a new card with different numbers will stop your compromised card from being used.
  • Place a fraud alert on your credit report. This will warn prospective lenders that you have been a victim of fraud and to take extra precautions to verify your identity before granting credit.
  • Place a security freeze on your credit. This will block most lenders from seeing your credit history. If a prospective lender can’t pull your credit, they will not issue a loan.
  • Call Orbitz to sign up for free credit monitoring. Doing this won’t let you know if someone is using your existing accounts without your permission, but it will let you know if someone opened a new account in your name. Orbitz says that affected customers residing in the U.S. may sign up for this service by submitting their information onlineor calling 855-828-3959 toll-free.

When making purchase online, it is best practice to always use a credit card. Credit card companies have stronger protections set for consumers whose information has been stolen and you can easily dispute an incorrect charge.

Source: Norton and Orbitz

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