If You've Eaten At Wendy's Lately, Check Your Bank Statement

Wendy's is investigating a possible breach of customers' credit card information at numerous locations.

On Wednesday, cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs posted an article on his blog saying the fast food chain was recently informed of fraudulent activity regarding credit cards used at its locations all around the same time.

It isn't clear which locations were involved, but the blog post said Krebs first received reports of the breach from Midwestern financial firms.

Banks on the East Coast, however, since reported similar findings, Krebs said.

Wendy's spokesman Bob Bertini told Krebs,

We have received this month from our payment industry contacts reports of unusual activity involving payment cards at some of our restaurant locations. Reports indicate that fraudulent charges may have occurred elsewhere after the cards were legitimately used at some of our restaurants. We've hired a cybersecurity firm and launched a comprehensive and active investigation that's underway to try to determine the facts.

Bertini added the breach appeared to occur at some point "late last year."

Anyone who recently used a debit or credit card at Wendy's should therefore monitor his or her account, since it's not certain one's bank will immediately notice instances of fraud.

The fact the possible theft is being exposed by Brian Krebs, a well-known expert on cyber crime, suggests it should be taken very seriously.

It was Krebs who first discovered Target's disastrous data breach in 2013.

Citations: Wendy's Customers Should Start Worrying Right Now (TIME), Wendy's Probes Reports of Credit Card Breach (Krebs on Security)