What to do if you fall victim to a credit card breach

CLIFTON HEIGHTS, Pa. (WPVI) -- Home Depot is investigating unusual activity on credit and debit cards for an unknown amount of customers, and shoppers in our area might want to take a closer look at their bank statements.

Home Depot looks to be the latest big store hit by cyber thieves.

The home improvement store hasn't gone as far as to say there was a security breach, but it has confirmed that it is investigating unusual activity involving customer credit and debit cards.

Home Depot began investigating unusual activity involving customers payment cards on Tuesday - the same day thousands of new counterfeit cards showed up on the black market.

The counterfeit cards are grouped online by zip codes, so the would-be buyers can purchase cards based on their area and not raise a red flag by using it.

The zip codes listed include ones right here in the Delaware Valley.

Rob D'Ovidio, Associate Professor of Criminology at Drexel University, explains, "[Home Depot is] taking a very strategic and good approach to be thorough in their investigation before letting us know what happened."

Home Depot released the following statement:

"We are working with our banking partners and law enforcement to investigate... We are aggressively gathering facts at this point. If we confirm that a breach has occurred, we will make sure customers are notified immediately."

D'Ovidio says, "It's a matter of when we are getting these letters and calls from our banks. It's no longer a matter of 'if' it's going to happen to everyone in this day and age."

D'Ovidio says whether you shopped at home depot or not, we all need to get in the habit of looking at our statements multiple times a week.

If you find that your information was taken in a security breach, experts say it's important to file a police report - even if you are able to get your money back.

This way if the thief uses your information later to open a credit card account, you have a paper trail showing that your information was compromised.

Experts say it could save you a major headache down the road.