Hackers hit Fresno’s Elephant Bar, threatening customers’ credit card data

Fresno’s Elephant Bar was one of 29 restaurant locations where security information was compromised by hackers, CM Bar LLC, the company that owns the restaurants, announced.

On Nov. 3, the Elephant Bar was alerted to a potential security incident by its card processor. Malicious software was installed on the Elephant Bar payment processing systems that are designed to record payment card information, including the cardholder name, account number, expiration date and verification code.

The software may have compromised payment card data for customers that made purchases at certain restaurant locations in California, Colorado, Arizona, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida.

The affected dates at the Elephant Bar in Villagio Shopping Center in northwest Fresno range from Sept. 12 to Nov. 24.

Customers are encouraged to review credit and debit card account statements as soon as possible in order to identify any discrepancies or unusual activity. If suspicious activity is noticed, customers should immediately notify the issuer of the credit or debit card. In instances of payment card fraud, cardholders are typically not responsible for any fraudulent activity that is reported in a timely fashion.

This data breach does not include Social Security numbers, addresses or other sensitive personal information, according to the Elephant Bar website.

For more information about this incident and ways customers can protect themselves, call 866-578-5412. To see the full list of affected locations or view an “Information About Identity Theft” reference guide, visit http://www.elephantbar.com/incident/.

This story was originally published December 8, 2015 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Hackers hit Fresno’s Elephant Bar, threatening customers’ credit card data."