Art of Tea - Security Problem
I placed my first order with Art of Tea in November, taking advantage of their Black Friday sales. A little over a month later I noticed charges on my credit card that I didn’t make, and had to cancel my card. Sure enough, today I got a letter from Art of Tea saying their website security had been compromised.
Sigh. At least the teas were good.
Hope this hasn’t happened to anyone else.
Uh oh. I also placed a black Friday order but have not had any suspicious charges on my card (I’ve not received any notifications from Art of Tea, yet).
Sorry this happened to you but thankfully you caught it.
I spoke too soon. Hubby brought up the mail and I received 2 letters. At least they are offering 12 months of credit monitoring at no cost.
I didn’t get a letter yet, but we did notice some fraudulent charges on our credit card in December. I had to cancel the card, but at least we were overnighted new ones. I had assumed the problem was connected with the Home Depot breech, but maybe it was my tea order.
Sorry to hear that, guys. I was pretty damn close to placing my own Art of Tea order for Black Friday, so this easily could have been me. A little disappointed in Art of Tea for taking so long to notify their customers, but I guess it takes a while to verify a breach. Still, letters? Why not email those affected? Seems kind of strange.
Letters came from their “legal” department and contained information not only about the breach, but also about credit monitoring, including how to get your free credit report and an offer for 12 months of free credit monitoring.
It did take a while but I was impressed with the fact that I received two letters. One because the Art of Tea account is in my name, and one for my husband because I used his credit card.
I remember another tea retailer who did nothing when this happened to them so I’m thankful I got the letter, even if it took them a while to send it.
I think 1. Email might have incited panic and could easily be missed or deleted (and there was a lot of information to cover in the letter), and 2. Letters were sent to be thorough and ensure legal and security issues were addressed.
Ah, got’cha. My main beef is that it’s January, which means that a lot could have happened between then and now as far as charges, and some people might not monitor their cards that closely. But better that they take a while than not address it at all.
I tried to find more information but there is nothing on their site or Facebook page. No idea why it took so long to notify customers. :(
It can take a while for a company to notice the breach too, depending on how tech savvy the company is and how good the hackers are. It may have been that Art of Tea got on the issue and notified their customers immediately after they found out. It also requires a lot of damage control for the companies who’s info got hacked, so letting ALL their customers know with a FB anouncement, not just the ones who were effected, could really hurt their business. Truth is no one is safe or spared. It could happen on any site. If hackers wanna hack, there isn’t much you can do to stop them. :/
I’m a bit confused about why I didn’t get contacted at all. Hmmm…
I ordered samples from them last year, and my card just got drained. Probably the worst possible time for this to happen, too. UGH.
I ordered from them over Black Friday and my card got hit with weird charges in mid-December. :( Luckily Bank of America is super vigilant about fraud so they had me check the charges and then put a stop on the card, but ugh, what a pain.
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