‘Terrifying’: Woman pays for Dunkin’ order using Apple Pay. Then she sees a strange charge

Digital wallets and contactless payment have made purchasing items in-store, placing online orders, and paying your tab at a restaurant as simple as tapping a chipped card or mobile phone.

But what happens if the payment system is hacked, and a stranger gains access to your financial information?

A Dunkin' Apple Pay hack?

One Dunkin' Donuts customer said she used Apple Pay to pay for her mobile order in the app, and shortly after had her financial information compromised.

In a TikTok, Iliana (@iliana.the.pa) says her credit card information was "hacked" after she used her Apple Pay digital wallet to pay for her morning coffee. The video has drawn over 103,000 views.

"If you order mobile Dunkin' Donuts on their app and you use Apple Pay, stop doing it right now," she says in the video. "I just had credit card fraud because all I wanted was a coffee, and to get it and to not wait in line and be late to work yet again."

Iliana explains that she ordered Dunkin' through the app and used Apple Pay to complete the transaction. But one thing was missing.

"For some reason, I didn't get the little receipt that pops up usually. And my phone kind of had this little weird glitch going on," she says. "[I] didn't really think anything of it, I thought it was just my phone. Anyway, payment went through."

What was Iliana charged for?

When Iliana arrived at work, she noticed something unusual on her bank app. "I went and got my coffee and was on my way to work, sat down at my computer," she explains. "And I had the most random $1 charge for stamps on my credit card that was pending."

What truly struck her about the situation, she says, is that her card information had been accessed despite completing the order using Apple Pay.

"The crazier thing was that it said I used Apple Pay," she says. "So luckily, it's connected to my phone, so my iPhone told me that I had purchased something when obviously I didn't. But the fact that they're hacking the Apple Pay through the Dunkin' Donuts app is a little bit terrifying. So I'm just here to warn you guys to just be careful with your Apple Pay."

The Daily Dot has reached out to Iliana via TikTok direct message, as well as to Dunkin' Donuts and Apple via email regarding the video.

What scams are Apple Pay payments susceptible to?

While it's not clear how the poster's card information was accessed, there are multiple ways to access card information via Apple Pay. These include a compromised device or Apple account, and specific card issuers or devices used to fraudulently complete charges. Despite its safe reputation, Apple Pay users can fall victim to some types of fraudulent and scam activity.

One of the more common—and less sophisticated—avenues to gain access to Apple Pay funds comes in the form of a phishing scam. This could be someone providing "proof" of a fake payment that never happened, tricking users into sending "overpaid" funds to someone attempting to purchase something from them. Or they may pose as a friend in need of cash.

Many scenarios can used to successfully convince you to fork over your hard-earned dollars.

Is Apple Pay safe to use?

Outside of super high-tech means of accessing your banking information, digital wallets like Apple Pay are regarded as highly secure payment methods.

Digital wallets use a system of secondary and tertiary—third—account numbers to process payments without actually giving an online merchant your card information, in laymen's terms. Apple Pay also does not store your actual credit card number.

Per How To Geek, digital wallet users are way more likely to actually *lose their credit card* altogether than have their mobile devices and payment methods compromised.

'Girl SAME!!!!'

Some who saw the video commented on it that they had also observed odd transactions between their Apple Pay accounts and Dunkin' Donuts.

"Omg girl SAME!!!!" one commenter wrote. "This happened to me last weekend, and I ordered dunkin the day before but I used a gift card? so freaking weird but I got the same charge and had to get a new amex."

"Girl something really similar happened to me with the dunkin app sadly," another said. "So frustrating."

"Omg the same thing happened to me but it had said someone used it to buy a $54 cake from Dunkin an hour after my original order time," a further commenter added. "Only way I knew was because an hour later I got a notification."

@iliana.the.pa it’s a wild world out there #applepay #dunkin #dunkindonuts #fraud ♬ original sound - iliana.the.pa

Others said their Apple Pay and Dunkin' Donuts accounts had been all but incompatible, preventing them from using the payment method in-app at all.

"Mine stopped working on apple pay it always got instantly declined and refunded when i try apple pay at dunkin," one commenter wrote.

"My Apple Pay never works for the app I can only use the gift card to," another commented.

"Do you think it’s unsafe to have my card on file for the app," a third wrote. "Since last year the app dosent allow me to use Apple Pay."

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