Andrew Pern's Star Inn the City issues warning to guests over phishing scam

York's Star Inn the City has issued a warning to customers after fraudsters targeted those who had made reservations in a phishing scam.

Restaurateur Andrew Pern told customers: "If you are called by anyone claiming to be OpenTable and The Star Inn the City asking for card details, please under no circumstances give out these details. We will never call you and ask for your card details over the phone."

Star Inn the City said it began contacting customers to warn them on Thursday (8 December) after being made aware of what is a believed to be an industry-wide scam. Occurrences have been reported to the police and relevant authorities.

Pern asked any customers affected to contact the restaurant immediately. He added: "All customers' full card details are stored securely through Stripe which is separate to OpenTable and has not been affected by this scam. The scam, which compromised the restaurant's booking system, was rapidly closed."

The fraudsters contacted customers from a number with only one digit changed from the restaurant’s and had customers names, booking times, the number of people in the party and the final four digits of card numbers.

Pern added: "This is something that none of us needed just before Christmas with customers looking forward to putting firmly 2022 behind them and feels like an invasion of privacy, all our customers and us included."

The Star Inn the City is part of the Star Group of Restaurants, which includes the Michelin starred the Star at Harome, the Winter Hütte, York, and the new Refectory Restaurant, which is due to open at York Minster in 2023.

OpenTable said the scam calls were not the result of vulnerability in its system describing them as "third-party phishing and social engineering scams targeting restaurants".

It added:" With these types of scams on the rise across the hospitality industry, we continue to actively alert and educate restaurants and diners to this kind of criminal conduct, and how they can recognize suspicious activity targeting them.

"We'd also like to reiterate that OpenTable will never contact a restaurant and ask them to share password or log in credentials."