EDITOR’S NOTE: The following update was sent to the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza on Friday, Aug. 9.

On June 6, acting out of an abundance of caution, we notified our customers and the media that we had initiated an investigation to determine whether or not cyber criminals might have obtained customer credit and debit card information. We also notified the FBI.

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The information was circumstantial, but we decided to put our customers first and alert everyone, so our customers could monitor their payment cards for any potential fraudulent use.

Since we issued that notification, we have been intensely focused on getting answers. We continued our internal investigation. We initiated a separate, independent investigation on behalf of credit card companies.

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We’ve brought in some of the best security experts and they are satisfied with the security measures we have in place. They continue to work with us to determine what happened. We have full confidence our customers can continue using their payment cards in our stores.

At this time, the key facts remain the same. Raley’s still is not aware of any evidence of unauthorized access to customer payment card data.

And no part of any investigation indicates any debit PIN numbers could possibly have been compromised. Robust security measures specific to PIN number entry, have been, and remain, firmly in place.

In fact, it is our policy that we do not store debit card PIN numbers.

Raley’s also has remained intensely focused on addressing our customers’ concerns. In our June notification, we invited customers to call our dedicated response team for more information.

Since the June 6 notification, the response team has fielded approximately 3,000 calls from customers who have contacted Raley’s with questions or concerns relating to the notification, or simply to say thank you for letting them know they should be on alert.

Some customers have told us they have been in contact with their banks and some customers said they have noticed unusual activity on their accounts.

While we encourage our customers to continue to work with their banks to address these incidents appropriately, we still have not discovered any evidence of unauthorized removal of information from Raley’s payment card system. The response team remains available for our customers.

At this point, all of the evidence that something may have happened remains circumstantial. We are continuing to look into this further, as well as continuing to assist outside investigations.

We have full confidence that our customers can continue using payment cards in our stores. We are continuing to listen to our customers, and continuing to work with our card processors to monitor for suspicious activity.

We sincerely regret any inconvenience this may have caused for our valued customers. We will continue to place the needs of our customers first, and we will be constantly vigilant on their behalf.

Nicole Townsend is marketing communications director with Raley’s Family of Fine Stores. Learn more at http://www.raleys.com.