While linking credit cards to apps and services does seem like a good idea as it helps make things more efficient, especially since you don’t have to keep entering your credit card details, it can also prove to be rather dangerous. According to a recent report by Bob Sullivan, it seems that several hackers have managed to steal money from Starbucks customers by accessing their credit card information through the Starbucks mobile app and the auto-load function.In fact there is a Reddit thread in which multiple Starbucks customers are complaining about having their money stolen. According to one user who goes by the handle sphericalpuma, “Just received an e-mail today. Username and email changed. 150 dollars taken. I had autoreload tied to my credit card and paypal. 50 from paypall [sic] and 100 from credit card.”
Another user by the name of Dongsheviks writes, “Today, I was alerted by my bank about suspicious activity. Tens of 20-25 dollar charges were being made on my debit card that I tried to reload with. Canceled the card, going to the bank tomorrow to file fraud.”
While it is unclear as to how these hackers stole customer information, Sullivan’s sources have speculated that it could simply be as easy and straightforward as a brute force attack in which hackers attempt to guess username/password combinations to gain access to a customer’s account.
In a statement to GeekWire, Starbucks spokeswoman Maggie Jantzen was quoted as saying, “We have safeguards in place to constantly monitor for fraudulent activity and, like all major retailers, work closely with financial institutions to make sure our customers are protected.” That being said if you have a Starbucks account and have PayPal or a credit card tied to it, perhaps it’s time to either unlink it, or come up with a better password.
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