Travellers who stayed at the upmarket Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas should keep a close eye on their bank statements in the months ahead. The hotel has admitted to an apparent database break-in in which personal information for 55,000 guests may have been stolen, including credit card and bank account numbers.
The resort said it was notifying affected customers in writing so that they can “take steps to protect themselves from possible identity fraud.”
Kerzner International Ltd., which operates the 2,000-room “ocean-themed” resort on Paradise Island, reported the theft last week in a U.S. regulatory filing. An internal investigation revealed that the information had been stolen from a database of Atlantis customers.
The company said it couldn’t discuss the matter further because the break-in is the subject of a criminal investigation.
The information stolen included names, addresses, credit card numbers, social security numbers and driver’s license numbers and bank account numbers. Approximately 55,000 customers may have been affected, the resort company said.
Kerzner is offering affected customers a free credit monitoring service for one year. It hired an outside security company to help resolve the incident and has notified law enforcement officials in the Bahamas and the U.S., who are helping investigate.
As of Wednesday, the resort had no evidence that the stolen information has been used for fraud or identity theft, said Kerzner spokeswoman Lauren Snyder.
The authorities investigating the matter include the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice, she said.