Western Union Holdings said that its Web site was hacked over the weekend and hackers gained access to customers' credit and debit card information.
"We did experience a security break, and as a result, personal information may have been copied down," a company spokesman reached by phone said on Monday. He declined further comment, referring all questions to corporate headquarters in Englewood, Colo.
Western Union spokesman Peter Ziverts could not be reached for comment. However, Ziverts told the Associated Press that the security problem, which affected 15,700 of its customers, appeared as early as Friday, Sept. 8. He told the news wire service that the breach to the Web site was due to human error as systems employees doing maintenance work left parts of the Web site unprotected.
Western Union was unaware of reports of credit card fraud because of the security breach, and the company was contacting affected customers, the report said.
The Western Union Web site currently reads "Our Web site is temporarily out of service. We apologize for any inconvenience." The Internet-based, money-transfer service was started in June, and an official launch was planned for sometime this month, according to the Associated Press report.
The company and law enforcement are investigating the security breach.
Western Union can be contacted at 303-771-8707 or at www.westernunion.com/.
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