Things Remembered employees might have had their personal and financial information stolen.

Investigation and a possible class action lawsuit against Things Remembered, Luxottica Group and Cole National Group for inadequately safeguarding employees' personal information.

In October 2008, Cole National Group sent letters to certain employees of Things Remembered stating: Cole National Group, Inc. (a Luxottica Group Company) is contacting you because you were an employee of the Things Remembered brand at some point between 1998 and March 2005. We recently discovered that an unknown, unauthorized person accessed a file from a company server in April 2008. This file contained information used for processing payroll for Things Remembered employees during the time span noted above.. . Your name, address, Social Security Number, date of birth and other information used for processing payroll were included in the file that was accessed.. . .We recommend that you place a fraud alert on your file."

News stories have reported that 59,000 individuals were affected by the breach. Investigators were reportedly able to trace the intrusion to a woman who has a lengthy arrest record that includes theft, forgery, and drug charges. Affected individuals are at risk of fraud and identity theft. The Company has offered one year of free credit monitoring for those affected. As noted above, the Company has also encouraged individuals to place a fraud alert on their file.