Sometimes you’re in an unfamiliar city or town and are just really hungry. So, you stop off at a chain restaurant, because you know that at least the food will get to your table with the same consistent taste it does at every other location. Well, if you recently curbed your appetite at an Applebee’s restaurant and used a payment card to pay the check, there is a very good chance that someone you don’t want to have it has your payment card number.
The point-of-sale systems (POS) at over 160 of the Applebee’s locations across the U.S. were infected with malware designed to steal information from payment cards. That information included names, card numbers, expiration dates, and the verification codes. You know. Everything one needs to make a purchase.
You can find a complete list of the known affected locations at the RMH Franchise website, which is the company that owns and operates the locations. In a dropdown box, you can find the location and then you can see the exact dates RMH believes the POS system was infected at that particular restaurant.
If you went to one of those locations between December 2017 and January 2018, you should be even more diligent than usual about monitoring your charges for at least the next year or until your card is replaced by the issuer. If anything looks odd, contact the issuer to find out if it’s indeed a fraudulent charge or just one you don’t recognize right away. The quicker you find it, the less damage that can be done.
RMH Holdings discovered the malware on February 13 and is reporting that the incident has been contained. They also hired third-party cybersecurity experts to continue the investigation and notified law enforcement upon discovery.
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