The professional salon chain Sally Beauty has confirmed that itis investigating a potential breach of its card paymentsystems.

Brian Krebs, author of the tech blog Krebs on Security,reported Wednesday that 282,000 debit and credit card accounts fromthe chain had been offered for sale on underground card marketsoverseas.

Krebs reported that a spokesman for Sally Beauty acknowledgedthat a software system the retailer uses to detect securitybreaches was activated on or around Feb. 24. Krebs also reportedthat while the spokesman said the firm had detected a breach, nodata had yet been confirmed as compromised or stolen.

No one from the firm has yet confirmed the Krebsreport.

The tech blogger reported the stolen card numbers were beingsold as of March 2, and three banks he had contacted about thebreach had purchased some of their own stolen card numbers backfrom the thieves.

The banks were then able to analyze the transactions anddetermine they shared purchases at Sally Beauty in common.

The news came on the heels of reports that a Chicago area bankhad contacted its debit and credit card holders, urging them tostop using their cards when paying for taxi rides in the Chicagoarea.

“We are advising you not to use your First American Bank debitcards (or any other cards) in local taxis,” wrote Tom Wells,chairman of the board at First American Bank, in a Feb. 28 email.“We have become aware of a data breach that occurs when a card isused in Chicago taxis, including American United, Checker, Yellowand Blue Diamond and others that utilize Taxi Affiliation Servicesand Dispatch Taxi to process card transactions.”