A burger and some chili or a baked potato seems like a great meal idea in this miserably snowy winter weather so many of us are having. Unfortunately, reports are saying that if you bought that tasty treat from Wendy’s with a credit or debit card recently, it may come with an unwanted side of fraud.
The news comes from security expert Brian Krebs, who in recent years first broke the news of the Target and Home Depot breaches, among dozens of other smaller ones.
Krebs reports that his sources inside the banking industry have seen a new pattern emerging in recently defrauded credit and debit cards. The similarity? All of them were recently used to buy something at a Wendy’s. Initial reports all seemed to come from the midwest, but also now seem to have spread to the East coast.
A spokesperson for Wendy’s confirmed to Krebs that the restaurant chain is taking the reports seriously and looking for a leak. “Reports indicate that fraudulent charges may have occurred elsewhere after the cards were legitimately used at some of our restaurants,” the representative told Krebs. “We’ve hired a cybersecurity firm and launched a comprehensive and active investigation that’s underway to try to determine the facts.”
However, the rep was unable to make any comment on whether the breach was still ongoing, when it started, how long it lasted, how many stores are involved, or how many customers were affected.
“We began investigating immediately, and the period of time we’re looking at the incidents is late last year,” he told Krebs. “We know it’s [affecting] some restaurants but it’s not appropriate just yet to speculate on anything in terms of scope.”
Wendy’s Probes Reports of Credit Card Breach [Krebs on Security]
by Kate Cox via Consumerist