Wendy's announced it is investigating reports of unusual activity with credits cards used at some of its locations across the U.S., raising the possibility that Wendy's might be the latest household name-brand company to be the victim of a point-of-sale (POS) data breach.
"Reports indicate fraudulent charges may have occurred elsewhere after payment cards were legitimately used at some restaurants," said Wendy's spokesman Bob Bertini, according to the Jacksonville Business Journal.
In light of this discovery, the fast food chain has begun working with cyber-security experts, payment industry contacts and law enforcement to look for any indicators of fraud.
"We have been working with our payment industry contacts since recently learning of these reports and we have launched a comprehensive investigation with the help of cyber-security experts to gather facts, while working to protect our customers," Wendy's stated, according to eWEEK. "We also are fully cooperating with law enforcement authorities."
Due to the investigation still being in its early stages, Wendy's has been unable to determine the nature or scope of the breach - if it happened at all. Despite that, the company has provided some guidance to any potentially affected customers, in the case that it did.
"As always, in line with prudent personal financial management, we encourage our customers to be diligent in watching for unauthorized charges on their payment cards," Wendy's stated. "Generally, individuals that report unauthorized charges in a timely manner to the bank that issued their card are not responsible for those charges."
If Wendy's officially confirms a breach of some sort, it would join a growling list of retailers that have been victims of security breaches in recent years, reported Reuters. Target and Home Depot were victims in the past, as well as gourmet sandwich chain Jimmy John's in 2014. That incident was particularly noteworthy since the breach was blamed on third-party POS vendor Signature Systems, a restaurant payment system provider.
"Until this investigation is completed, it is difficult to determine with certainty the nature or scope of any potential incident," Bertini said.
