Some Stores Quiet Over Card Breach

Most states mandate that companies tell their customers when their credit-card data is stolen from the stores. The laws are designed to give consumers a chance to protect themselves against fraud or identity theft.But when federal prosecutors disclosed last week that computer hackers swiped more than 40 million credit-card numbers from nine retailers in the biggest such heist ever, it was the first time that many shoppers had heard about it.That's because only four of the chains clearly alerted their customers to breaches. Two others -- Boston Market Corp. and Forever 21 Inc. -- say they never told customers because they never confirmed data were stolen from them.
The other retailers -- OfficeMax Inc., Barnes and Noble Inc., and Sports Authority Inc. -- wouldn't say whether they made consumer disclosures. Computer searches of their Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Web sites, press releases and news archives turned up no evidence of such disclosures.