Conman allegedly calling diners with reservations, claiming to be OpenTable employees (PA Archive)
OpenTable is urging UK restaurants and diners to beware of fraudsters who pretend to be employees to trick customers into providing their credit card details.
Scammers are reportedly calling restaurants pretending to work for OpenTable, an online reservation service, to request login credentials.
Once they can log into the OpenTable account, they call customers with incoming bookings from the restaurant, and ask for their card details to collect or refund the deposit for the reservation, reports The Sunday Times. .
Victims say they then received a second call or message from scammers pretending to be their bank to authorize the transaction.
Some restaurants, including those used by OpenTable, take a deposit to secure a reservation, but card details are usually taken during the booking process, not afterwards.
The scandal has prompted the San Francisco-based reservation company, which is used by thousands of restaurants in the UK, to warn customers about the risks.
One victim told the Sunday Times she was called by a man named Gavin who told her she needed to pay a deposit to secure the table she had requested.
After the caller gave her card details, a £500 transaction appeared on her bank statement. The woman canceled it before it could leave.
Aurelien Noble, general manager of Levon in Peckham, said four customers had been tricked into giving their card details with transactions of up to £900 made from their bank accounts. All have been refunded.
Action Fraud received nine fraud reports mentioning OpenTable in January and 63 last year, according to the Sunday Times.
OpenTable is reminding restaurants that it will never call for passwords or log-in information, The Standard has been told.
The company “strongly encourages” all restaurants to install further security controls to help protect against fraud, such as two-factor authentication.
“For Diners: If you receive a call asking for credit card details, do not share them. Call the restaurant directly to confirm their identity and whether they need your credit card details Do and call.
A spokesman told the Sunday Times that the online service had not been hacked, but rather “bad actors” had obtained login credentials from some restaurants.
Restaurants were reminded that these types of scams are on the rise throughout the hospitality industry.
More than 50,000 restaurants worldwide use OpenTable, serving more than a billion people a year.
