Play.com email spam links customers to malware

The email addresses of Play.com customers have been compromised after the online retailer confirmed a security breach.

In an email sent out to Play.com customers, the company said that a firm that handles part of its marketing had suffered a security breach.

"Unfortunately this has meant that some customer names and email addresses may have been compromised."

Personal data compromised in the security breach is already being used. Play.com customers have been receiving spam emails pertaining to be from a company called GSN.

The email, which contains a link to a page which can harm a computer, claims to offer an upgrade to the Adobe Acrobat X PDF Reader. GSN, an American cable and satellite TV broadcaster, is investigating the spam email. On the GSN member forums, the company said:

"Early yesterday morning, you may have received an email from a GSN address about Adobe Acrobat. We are actively looking into this and strongly recommend that you delete the email."

Concerned customers have been contacting Play.com seeking reassurances over the security of their personal data. In response Play.com said that it "offers a totally secure shopping environment".

Despite confirming that the data breach had occurred at a "marketing communications" company, Play.com has been emailing customers to reassure them that its database is "maintained on a secure internal server" and that "no unauthorised access of any kind is available to the network".

In a statement, Play.com CEO John Perkins said that "the only information communicated to our email service provider was email addresses". He continued to say that all other personal information, such as credit card details, addresses and password, are kept "in a very secure Play.com environment."

Play.com said it took privacy and security very seriously and that the issue had occurred outside of Play.com and that no other personal customer information had been involved.

People who have shopped at Play.com have been reminded that the company will never email to ask for information such as passwords, bank account details or credit card numbers.

Anyone who receives a suspicious email should disregard it and forward the email to privacy@play.com.