It’s the time of year when we use our credit cards more than ever (those presents aren’t going to buy themselves, y’all), so news that credit card data for more than 500 restaurants may have been breached is scary.
Landry’s, Inc., the parent company of more than 500 restaurants, including Rainforest Cafe, Bubba Gump Shrimp and Claim Jumper, announced the breach yesterday. Banking analysts noticed that fraudulent charges were popping up on cards that had one thing in common: They’d been used at a Landry’s restaurant.
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The troubling thing is that they haven’t isolated which restaurants’ systems were breached — all 500, or just a few? So for now, if you dined at any of the restaurants operated by Landry’s (listed below) between May of 2015 and now, you should check your credit card statement immediately for any fraudulent charges:
- Aquarium Restaurant
- Babin’s Seafood House
- Big Fish Seafood Bistro
- The Boathouse
- Brenner’s Steakhouse
- Brenner’s on the Bayou
- Bubba Gump Shrimp Company
- Cadillac Bar
- Charley’s Crab
- Chart House
- Claim Jumper
- The Crab House
- Fish Tales
- Fisherman’s Wharf Seafood Grill
- The Flying Dutchman Restaurant & Oyster Bar
- Gandy Dancer
- Grand Concourse
- Grotto
- Harlow’s Food & Fun
- La Griglia
- Landry’s Seafood
- Mai Tai Bar
- Mastro’s Restaurants
- McCormick & Schmick’s
- Meriwether’s
- Morton’s The Steakhouse
- The Oceanaire Seafood Room
- Peohe’s
- Rainforest Cafe
- Red Sushi
- River Crab
- Rusty Pelican
- Saltgrass Steak House
- Simms Steakhouse
- T-Rex Cafe
- Trevi
- Vic & Anthony’s Steakhouse
- Willie G’s Seafood & Steaks
- Yak & Yeti
Banks are reporting that cards that were compromised after being used at a Landry’s restaurant are showing charges from big-box stores like Target and Best Buy, so keep an eye out for any mysterious purchases made at those stores. It may be tricky with all the other charges on your cards this time of year (honestly, I’ve been to more stores in the past few weeks than I can count), but that’s all the more reason to be vigilant about regularly looking over your credit card statements to see if anything’s out of place.
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If you do notice anything, notify your bank immediately. If you report unusual activity on your card in a timely manner, you’re usually not responsible for the fraudulent charge, so make sure you check ASAP.
Fortunately Landry’s has since switched to a new payment system that encrypts credit card data when you’re charged, so if you’re really dying to hit up Bubba Gump’s after a long day of shopping, you shouldn’t have to be too worried. Just remember to check your credit card statement when you get home. Hopefully the only alarming thing on there will be how much money you accidentally spent at Sephora when you were supposed to be buying gifts for your family (oh wait, that was me).
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