The reported exposure of customer information affected 34 locations in the greater Houston area, College Station, Corpus Christi and El Paso over a little more than a year and a half.
"With everything going on now with all these hackers, it's just way too easy for someone to get the information," customer Derek Dyment said.
The stores affected are Copperfield Liquors, JJ's Liquors, Cowtown Discount Liquors, Restaurant & Bar Supply, Warehouse Liquors (in Corpus Christi), The Beverage Shoppe, Richard's Fine Wines & Spirits and some small Spec's stores in the greater Houston area.
The company says its Houston superstore and other major stores, Rio Grande Valley stores, and our stores in North and Central Texas were not affected.
Spec's managers say somebody put a type of malware onto the company's payment system that has been able to record banking information since October 30, 2012, and may have continued through March 20, 2014. Spec's only discovered the breach when credit card companies started picking up on suspicious activity.
Spec's reports that the attack on customers' information impacted nearly 550,000 customers and employees, or less than five percent of their total transactions, during that time period. However, managers are encouraging all customers to check their statements to be sure.
"I check mine pretty much every day just to make sure," customer Orlando Alverado said.
Spec's says they're working closely with the Secret Service on an active investigation of this crime, and is offering a year of free fraud resolution services to those customers and employees who may have been affected.
AFFECTED STORES
Houston
12901 Queensbury Lane
14110 Stuebner Airline Road
14114 Stuebner Airline Road
1665 South Voss Road
1743 Fry Road
1900 South Shepherd Drive
2545 Kirby Drive
5630 Richmond Avenue
5750 Woodway Drive
5818 Memorial Drive
8306 Southwest Freeway
Kingwood
4530 Kingwood Drive (CLOSED)
Baytown
4665 Garth Road, Suite 800
Bryan
1219 North Texas Avenue, Suite 100 (CLOSED)
College Station
1600 Texas Avenue
3505 Longmire Drive
Conroe
1304 West Davis Street, Suite F
Sugar Land
13827 Southwest Freeway
The Woodlands
10491 Kuykendahl Road
2230 Buckthorne Place (CLOSED)
4747 Research Forest Drive
4775 West Panther Creek Drive
9420 College Park Drive (CLOSED)
Cypress
17996 FM 529
El Paso
11411 Gateway Boulevard W
5100 Montana Avenue
4804 Doniphan Drive (CLOSED)
7933 North Mesa Street, Suite A
Corpus Christi
10529 South Padre Island Drive
4318 Ayers Street
4733 South Alameda Street
620 Old Robstown Road
6401 Weber Road
Robstown
15540 FM 624
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