Seattle – Thousands of Hotels.com customers may be at risk for credit-card fraud after a laptop computer containing their personal information was stolen from an auditor, a company spokesman said Saturday.
The password-protected laptop belonging to an Ernst & Young auditor was taken in late February from a locked car, said Paul Kranhold, spokesman for Hotels.com, a subsidiary of Expedia.com based in Bellevue.
“As a result of our ongoing communication with law enforcement, we don’t have any indication that any credit-card numbers have been used for fraudulent activity,” Kranhold said. “It appears the laptop was not the target of the break-in.”
Both Hotels.com and Ernst & Young mailed letters to Hotels.com customers encouraging them to take action to protect their personal information.
The transactions on the laptop were mostly from 2004. The computer contained personal info, including names, addresses and credit-card information, of about 243,000 Hotels.com customers.
