State Consumer Protection Office Investigating Zippy’s Security Breach 

State of Hawai‘i Office of Consumer Protection Executive Director Stephen Levins announced on Friday, April 27, 2018, that the office has initiated an investigation into a data breach involving Zippy’s Restaurants in Hawai‘i.

Zippy’s announced late yesterday afternoon that it suffered a major security breach affecting customers at its Hawaii restaurants. Information compromised in the breach involved credit and debit cards, containing the name of the account holder, the account number, the verification code, and the card’s expiration date.

“This is a significant breach affecting thousands of Hawai‘i consumers that must be taken very seriously by both Zippy’s and its affected customers,” said Levins. “Immediately upon learning about it this afternoon we initiated an investigation to get to the bottom of it.”

In view of the significant nature of the breach the Office of Consumer Protection is urging consumers to seriously consider the following:

• Review and monitor credit card statements for any unusual or unknown charges.
• Contact their financial institution to determine if there is any suspicious activity on their accounts.
• Change their account information.
• Place a fraud alert on their credit bureau reports.
• Place a security freeze on their credit bureau reports.
• Periodically monitor their credit bureau reports for any unusual activity and check for accuracy.

In addition, everyone is allowed one free credit report per year from each of the three major credit bureaus. To learn how to obtain a free annual credit report under federal law, visit AnnualCreditReport.com or call (877) 322-8228. A victim of fraud is eligible to receive one free credit report from each of the major credit bureaus. Requests for a free report based on a fraud claim should be made directly to the credit bureaus:

• TransUnion: (877) 322-8228; TransUnion.com; P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348
• Experian: (866) 200-6020; Experian.com; P.O. Box 2002, Allen, TX 75013
• Equifax: (888) 766-0008; Equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374

The Office of Consumer Protection is also urging impacted persons to be on the lookout for scammers who may try to capitalize on this breach by sending phishing emails.

Consumers should not open any email messages or attachments from unknown senders or click on any unknown links. Fraudsters will frequently send coercive and misleading emails threatening account suspension or worse if sensitive information is not provided. Remember, businesses will never ask customers to verify account information via email. If in doubt, contact the business in question directly for verification and to report phishing emails.

For more information regarding identity theft, go online.