Our friend Gary Merson over at HDGuru.com is reporting that the Best Buy customer database has either been hacked or corrupted, resulting in customer shipping addresses being changed. According to Gary, when he logged into his Best Buy account, he noticed that his shipping address had been changed to a stranger in Texas (Gary lives on Long Island, NY). If he had purchased a product without noticing the change, his order would have been shipped to that person.
A customer service representative at Best Buy was aware of the issue and said the customer database problem was not due to hacking, but was "corrupted by a glitch which caused customer data to be intermingled."
This problem comes on the heels of a massive data breach back in April with Best Buy's email marketing provider, Epsilon. At the time, Best Buy and others claimed that only email addresses and names were stolen. Is it possible passwords were also stolen that would allow access to BestBuy.com accounts?
So far there is no official word from Best Buy corporate on the real cause or why customers have not been notified.
I recommend that any Best Buy customers check their shipping information to make sure that it is correct and change their Best Buy passwords as an extra precaution.
From Phil Stock on June 13, 2011 :: 11:40 am
Same thing happened to me, except the ship to address was a salesman at Best Buy, the same one I bought my dishwasher from, either very dumb or a genuine error. I spoke to the manager of the store who insisted this guy had been with them for years and was good, so I gave them the benefit of doubt, but having read this: I’m not so sure.
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