A legal firm representing customers affected by the Ticketmaster data breach last year has said that more than half of the victims have since suffered fraudulent transactions.
Hayes Connor Solicitors, which currently represents 650 complainants, told the Manchester Evening News that 63% of those to have had data compromised had gone on to experience fraudulent activity.
The legal firm, which said it is the only UK practice currently launching multi-party litigation against Ticketmaster, also said that nearly a third of victims – 31 per cent – have also suffered psychological trauma.
Kingsley Hayes, managing director at Hayes Connor Solicitors, told the Manchester Evening News: “When personal and financial data has been stolen, as was the case with Ticketmaster last year, it can be some time before fraudulent activity becomes evident as stolen information is often used in batches – particularly when there are a large number of individuals affected.
“The serious data breach impacted thousands of customers who, like our existing clients, are highly likely to either have already had their personal information used for fraudulent transactions, or can expect this to happen some time in the future.
“Cyber criminals can go as far as setting up bank accounts and taking out credit in data breach victims’ names – the potential financial and psychological damage can therefore be far-reaching.”
Ticketmaster had not responded to a request for comment in response to the claims ahead of publication.
Up to 40,000 UK Ticketmaster customers were believed to have had “some personal or payment information” stolen following the data security breach that became public knowledge in June 2018.
Ticketmaster admitted it had been hacked by “malicious software” on third-party customer support product Inbenta Technologies. Ticketmaster said the breach was likely to have only affected UK customers who purchased or attempted to purchase tickets between February and June 23, 2018.
Cybersecurity firm RiskIQ reported in August that the attack was not an isolated incident, as a hacking group called Magecart had targeted around 800 e-commerce sites.
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