Like many folks, I’ve gotten emails from many companies I do business with online letting me know that their email databases have been compromised by hackers. The breach took place at an email marketing company called Epsilon. Here’s one notification I received from Marriott:

April 4, 2011

Dear Marriott Customer,

We were recently notified by Epsilon, a marketing vendor used by Marriott International, Inc. to manage customer emails, that an unauthorized third party gained access to a number of Epsilon’s accounts including Marriott’s email list.

In all likelihood, this will not impact you. However, we recommend that you continue to be on the alert for spam emails requesting personal or sensitive information. Please understand and be assured that Marriott does not send emails requesting customers to verify personal information.

We take your privacy very seriously. Marriott has a long-standing commitment to protecting the privacy of the personal information that our guests entrust to us. We regret this has taken place and apologize for any inconvenience.

Please visit our FAQ to learn more.

Sincerely,

Marriott International, Inc.

I also received one from Hilton and saw an online notice on the Chase website. Most of these notices state that there has been no direct leak of account information, only email addresses. That may be true, but early this morning someone tried to close a Paypal account linked with my email address and then open a new one ten minutes later:
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