1.4 Million Affected by Retailer ID Theft

A case of identity theft involving retailer DSW Shoe Warehouse was revealed to be much worse than first thought. Investigators said 1.4 million people -- over 10 times more than initially believed to be affected -- will be alerted that their personal information may have been accessed.

The thefts occurred between November of last year and February, involving 108 of the retailer's 178 stores across 25 states. DSW Shoe Warehouse has provided a list of stores affected on its Web site.

"For each card, the stolen information includes credit or debit card number, name and transaction amount," a statement on the company's Web site said. The company said contact information was not stolen.

Originally, the DSW Shoe Warehouse, as well as investigators, believed that only 100,000 customers had been involved in the theft across 103 of its stores.

"We believe we have taken the steps needed to alert our customers," said Debbie Ferree, President of DSW. "While others have guessed as to the extent of the data stolen, DSW waited to report the key facts listed below until we knew what they were and that the forensic investigation verified them as accurate. We also want our customers to know that we have implemented measures to prevent further data theft of this nature."

Also on Monday, LexisNexis announced that it had begun to contact the 280,000 people affected by a break-in to its own servers.