Fox news reports that One of the UK's biggest computer games developers has confirmed the personal details of many of its customers have been stolen, after its systems were hacked.
Codemasters - which makes games for consoles including the Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo Wii - has said customer names and addresses, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers and encrypted passwords have been taken.
It follows a number of similar computer hacks, including two against Sony which saw the data of almost 100 million users taken.
Codemasters has now taken its website off line, following the breach last Friday.
The company said it had emailed every customer ever registered on the site in the wake of the data theft but insisted no payment details have been compromised.
Offering its apologies for the security breach, the firm urged users to be "extra cautious of potential scams, via email, phone, or post that ask you for personal or sensitive information".
"Unfortunately, Codemasters is the latest victim in ongoing targeted attacks against numerous game companies," it told recipients of the letter.
"We assure you that we are doing everything within our legal means to track down the perpetrators and take action to the full extent of the law.
"We apologise for this incident and regret any inconvenience caused. We are contacting all customers who may have been affected directly."
Users of the website were also encouraged to change any passwords "associated with other Codemasters accounts".
Spokesman Rich Eddy said the company still had no idea who targeted the site but said the attack could "quite possibly" affect tens of thousands of people.
Visitors to the website - codemasters.com - were being directed to its Facebook page.
A new site will be launched later in the year.
Last month, Japanese company Sony revealed it had suffered two massive breaches of security.
The first attack - which saw the theft of data from 77 million users of its PlayStation network - was one of the worst break-ins in internet history.
In the second intrusion, an extra 24.6 million computer game users may have had their personal details stolen.
i will redo this once i have had some sleep......
