Carlsbad / CA. (cfbc) California’s Champagne French Bakery Cafe was alerted to a potential payment card issue, immediately started an investigation, and took steps to end unauthorized access to our payment card network. A leading computer forensic firm was engaged, and a thorough investigation was conducted to determine what occurred and what restaurant locations and time frames were involved. Champagne Bakery notified the card networks and provided information to support an investigation by law enforcement.
Over the general time frame of February 18, 2019 to September 27, 2019, malware was installed on certain point-of-sale devices in our restaurants that were used for payment card transactions. The time frames involved vary by restaurant. And for the majority of the restaurants involved, cards were not successfully obtained during certain weeks in March 2019. The malware was designed to look for data read from the magnetic stripe of a payment card as it was being routed through the system. Data in the magnetic stripe includes the cardholder name, card number, expiration date, and internal verification code. In some instances, the malware only identified the portion of the magnetic stripe that contained payment card information without the cardholder name.
Lists of the restaurants involved and their respective time frames are available on the company’s web site. The site also provides information about the incident and additional steps customers may take.
Champagne Bakery quickly took measures to contain the incident, remove the malware, and has been working to implement measures to further enhance payment card security. It is always advisable to remain vigilant to the possibility of fraud by reviewing payment card statements for any unauthorized activity. You should immediately report any unauthorized charges to the bank that issued your card because payment card rules generally provide that cardholders are not responsible for unauthorized charges reported in a timely manner. The phone number to call is usually on the back of the payment card.
