Dec 2, 2010 10:40 GMT  ·  By

Shell Vacations, a company that operates a chain of resorts across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, is currently investigating a possible security breach that resulted in credit card details being compromised.

An announcement posted on the Shell Vacations Hospitality and Shell Vacations Club websites, the company’s two subsidiaries, reveals that the suspected incident occurred between June 2010 and October 2010.

It is our understanding that secure credit and debit card information may have been compromised,” the company’s president President Susan C. Kelley, writes.

Despite employing multiple safeguards, we were not made aware of the possible security breach until just recently,” she adds.

At this point, the circumstances in which the breach occurred are not really clear, but it apparently affected both employees and customers.

Shell Vacations is working with credit card companies to resolve the issue and has contracted a team of forensic experts to investigate the incident.

The company also published a FAQ regarding the breach, although all of the information there is also available in the announcement.

Customers are advised to monitor their credit card statements for unauthorized activity and report it to the card issuer immediately if discovered.

There have already been reports of credit card misuse posted on review websites by people who stayed at the company’s Desert Rose Resort in Las Vegas.

We had our credit card ripped off to the tune of $4200.00 and the ONLY place I produced my credit card was the desert rose, not even for payment as we had prepaid the accomodation, this was a ‘security’ swipe-what a joke!,” one customer writes.

This would seem to indicate a point-of-sale (PoS) breach, which would be consistent with similar incidents that affected other hotel and restort chains.

In September, we reported a PoS breach at HEI Hotels & Resorts which resulted in credit card data being stolen, while in June we wrote about a similar case at Destination Hotels & Resorts.