McDonald’s app users defrauded
Fast food ordered after account hacked, but company reluctant to return money
Two city residents defrauded through a McDonald’s app say the fast food conglomerate won’t take responsibility and has put the onus on them.
Deborah Kelly and Jason Wells were victims of fraud after someone used their My McD’s app — connected to their credit cards — to order food.
But McDonald’s reps won’t own up to the issue.
They said, leaving them to deal with it. Kelly downloaded the app three months ago, so she could quickly order a breakfast sandwich. That’s the only time she used it.
In mid-October, Kelly got an email thanking her for her McDonald’s order. When she checked it out, it was a receipt for a store in Scarborough for $35.
“I thought it was spam, but I thought I’d check my credit card just in case,” Kelly said.
Sure enough, the food charge was pending.
When Wells got an email thanking him for his order, he also thought it was spam.
He’d been charged about $30 for food in Montreal.
Both Kelly and Wells said they called McDonald’s Canada immediately for an explanation.
Kelly was told there must have been a “glitch” with the system, but that the charges would be removed.
Days later, when that hadn’t happened, Kelly called again.
The McDonald’s representative gave her the same spiel, Kelly said, but also offered her coupons for the amount she’d lost.
Kelly didn’t want coupons, though, she wanted her money back.
“You took (the funds) authorized from my account. You essentially stole money from me, I want it back,” she told the rep.
Meanwhile, Wells was blamed for having a weak password when he called the head office.
“They completely threw it on me and said your account has been compromised.”
As someone who’s been the victim of identity theft in the past, Wells said he’s diligent in ensuring his passwords are secure and he doesn’t share them with anyone.
Wells said the rep wouldn’t acknowledge that McDonald’s was at fault, or what had really happened.
“Then they back pedalled and said it was a common issue,” he said.
News articles featuring people’s stories of fraudulent charges via the My McD app have been circulating for about a year now.
Kelly and Wells were both denied a refund and were told to contact their banks instead.
“You’re profiting from illegal activity,” Kelly told the McDonald’s rep.
Ultimately, TD removed Kelly’s charges and RBC reversed Wells’.
Yet both are confused as to why they were responsible for remedying the issue.
“How, suddenly, is the work now put on me and my bank to make sure this gets rectified,” Kelly said in an interview Wednesday with The Examiner.
Wells said he was told to send McDonald’s the e-receipt that he was contesting so they could “investigate.”
That didn’t make sense to him, though, since they weren’t acknowledging any involvement, or planning to reimburse the lost funds, he said.
“They didn’t admit to anything,” Wells said, adding he was told someone would be in touch, but he never heard another word.
After Kelly contacted CBC to blow the whistle on McDonald’s, she received a call from the McDonald’s head office.
The rep apologized, saying she was hacked and then “lectured” her for having a weak password.
In an email to The Examiner, Ryman Boussoufa, McDonald’s Canada spokesperson, said the company recommends customers be “diligent online by not sharing their passwords with others, creating unique passwords and changing passwords frequently.”
Furthermore, Boussoufa said they’re aware that some “isolated incidents” involving unauthorized transactions have occurred, but McDonald’s remains confident in the app’s security.
The spokesperson also encouraged customers who’ve had unauthorized transactions to notify their bank.
Kelly and Wells said they’d both like to see McDonald’s take responsibility and fix the issue.