Bargain hunters unfazed by fraud threat

TORONTO -- Assurances from Winners and HomeSense that a security breach reported last month did not involve Canadian debit-card transactions isn't making much of dent with customers of the two retail chains.

Not much can keep them from their bargain hunting.

The deals to be found at Winners make the risk of becoming the victim of credit card fraud worthwhile, said Sherry Croney as she slowly sifted through the blouse racks at one of the chain's cavernous stores in downtown Toronto.

Croney said she never uses her credit card when clothes shopping, and even if she did, a security breach wouldn't stop her.

"The prices (are) unbelievable," she said. "You see really nice stuff that you'd normally see for like one-hundred-and-something and it's excellent."

Winners' president, Michael MacMillan, appealed to Canadian customers directly yesterday with full-page ads in at least two of the country's largest daily newspapers, saying he believed the transactions using debit cards issued by Canadian banks weren't involved in the breach.

"Based on our investigation, we can now report we believe transactions using debit cards issued by Canadian banks were not involved in the systems breach," the ad read.

MacMillan went on to reassure customers the company has beefed up security of its computer systems.

TJX Companies, the U.S. parent company of Winners and HomeSense, revealed last month it was the victim of a massive security breach.

The company discovered in mid-December that customers' credit and debit card information had been stolen from its computer network, which included data from its Winners and HomeSense stores in Canada.

Updating its investigation earlier this week, TJX noted that debit cards issued by Canadian banks didn't seem to have been compromised.