The announcement of the unauthorised emails followed a claim that the electronic appliance retailer's client database had been hacked and bogus emails sent to customers.
''We advise our customers not to open any emails from Noel Leeming Tauranga in the interim,'' company spokeswoman Sarah Rogan said today.
''We understand there have been unauthorised emails sent from Noel Leeming's Tauranga store email account today. Noel Leeming takes customer data very seriously and we are investigating the matter,'' she said.
The appropriate authorities had been informed of the issue, she said.
The problem unfolded today, with the Bay of Plenty Times alerted to the issue by a Tauranga client of the store who claimed that the database had been hacked.
The man, who asked not to be named, received a ''convincing'' email on Tauranga branch letterhead, but said it was totally bogus.
He noticed the email when he turned on his computer at 12.17pm today. He did not open the email and so could only speculate about whether it was a blackmail scam, a scam to get credit card details, or a way to introduce a virus.
