An Ontario woman is wondering why she was charged for McDonald’s meals bought in Laval: $100 in burgers and filet-o-fish.
Someone ordered the meals at the McDonald's on Boulevard St. Martin West with Patty Duke’s McDonald’s app – problem is, the Sarnia resident has never been to Laval.
“I thought it was an error at first, because I couldn’t believe I’d placed four separate orders, all to the same McDonald’s, within minutes of each other,” Duke explained. “it didn’t make a whole lot of sense.”
The “My Mc-D’s” app lets customers order and pay for food through their mobile phones.
Duke’s credit card was charged repeatedly, mostly for filet-o-fish. When she reported the fraud, her bank account was put on hold.
“I’m a single mother, I don’t have money to spare,” she said. “When I had to put my account on hold for 24 hours, and then missing that $100, it really stressed me out.”
Duke pressed McDonald’s, and spoke to a customer service agent at their headquarters in Toronto, who she says was “very apologetic.”
The representative also conceded that this problem has been reported before.
A week later, Duke received a McDonald’s email, which said the company was confident there had been no security breach within their system.
Instead, they suggested it was her account or email that may have been compromised.
In a statement, McDonalds said it takes appropriate measures to keep personal information secure. It recommends not sharing passwords with others, creating unique passwords, and changing them often.
But Duke is not alone – there have been reports of similar cases out of Nova Scotia.
A Halifax woman took her frustrations to social media after someone ran up $500 in purchases in Montreal using her My Mc-D’s account.
Although weak passwords could be to blame, Steve Waterhouse – a cyber security expert – says there are other possibilities.
“The application, if not secured properly, the information can be extrapolated from the phone, extracted, and from that point, will be handed off,” Waterhouse explained.
“McDonalds has a moral responsibility coming forward and putting on that public statement,” he added.
Although her bank refunded the money, Duke wants McDonalds to do more to protect people like her.
“I certainly think they should be making the public aware that there is a problem,” she said. “Shut it down until they can figure out what’s going on.”
If this happens to you, Waterhouse suggests reporting the charges to police services, your bank, and Canada's anti-fraud centre.