Penn Station, Inc. and some of its franchisees have announced that they have learned of unauthorized access to credit and debit card information in certain franchisee-owned Penn Station East Coast Subs restaurants. Less than 20 percent of Penn Station’s more than 235 restaurants have been identified as potentially affected to date.
“We want to make our customers aware of this issue and advise them to watch for any unauthorized use of their credit or debit cards,” said President Craig Dunaway.
Federal law enforcement authorities have been contacted and are involved in the investigation. After learning of a potential breach, Penn Station franchisees changed the method of processing credit and debit card transactions.
A list of the potentially effected restaurants and more information is available at www.penn-station.com . Questions can be directed to Penn Station, Inc. at 513-474-5957 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. EDT Monday through Friday.
Forty-three restaurants in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and West Virginia are listed on their web site. Names and debit or credit card numbers are affected.
According to the FAQ on their site,
Upon learning of the possibility of unauthorized access, we hired and worked with experts in data breach investigations who are still in the process of examining data, but have now found indications that unauthorized access did occur at some of the restaurants and that such access likely commenced at the beginning of March. In addition, upon learning of the possibility of unauthorized access to credit and debit card information, ALL of the individual owners of the Penn Station restaurants changed the method for processing credit and debit card transactions. Based on the actions taken when Penn Station owners first learned of the possibility of unauthorized access, if you visited one of the above Penn Station restaurants during the time period from the beginning of March to the end of April and used a credit or debit card to pay for your purchase, you should be alert for the possibility of fraudulent charges on your credit or debit card.