Pixmania users report scam-spam bombardment

Updated Several Reg readers have complained to us about receiving spam emails directed at addresses they had exclusively supplied to Pixmania, the online consumer electronics retailer.

The incidents of spam – reported by four Reg readers, and numerous other users on various online forums (as a quick Google search reveals) – have sparked concerns that Pixmania's email marketing database has either been hacked into or sold on to less-than-scrupulous parties.

One reader reports receiving an offer for a dodgy work-at-home scheme via an address he had only ever used with Pixmania and for a purchase completed some years ago.

In a statement, Dixons Retail (which owns Pixmania) said it investigating the problem. In the meantime it reassured its customers that it had not sold the database and that any information that might have been exposed would not have contained credit card details.

We are investigating these claims as a matter of urgency, but we are not aware of any attacks to our website that have resulted in the leakage of customer data, and neither do we sell our database to third parties.

It is also important to note that no bank details are stored in Pixmania databases. Passwords are encrypted.

Pixmania annually invests large resources to provide our customers with the highest security at all times. If however customers are concerned they are invited to contact us at customer.security(at)pixmania-group.com

Internet users, in general, are more sensitive to the leak of personal email addresses in the wake of high-profile breaches involving Sony and marketing outfit Epsilon over recent weeks. Epsilon handled the mail shots for dozen of well-known brands, so the breach of its systems potentially exposed millions of private email addresses, creating a possible targeted phishing risk as well as an extra spam risk in the process. ®