Pub near Chichester targeted by hackers — customers warned to take action

A number of customers of the Anglesey Arms in Halnaker received a text message this week to warn them that OpenTable, a restaurant booking app, had been targeted by criminals. Punters were urged to be wary of anyone calling pretending to be from the pub.

The matter is now being dealt with by Sussex Police.

A post on the pub’s Facebook page read: ”It is with sadness and quite a bit of anger, that we have had one or more of our guests contacted via phone by scammers. They are posing as a member or our team asking for credit card details with the intention of scamming money out of them. Please be assured it is not us, and if you are contacted do not provide any details. If you have been contacted please can you let us know.”

Punch Pubs and Co's managing director of management partnerships, Robin Belither: "Our Management Partners, Dom and Shell, who run The Anglesey Arms in Halnaker, are fantastic operators. It is very disappointing that one of our pub businesses has been targeted by criminals in this way; however, we have the processes in place to react quickly. Since being alerted by the pub on Friday, we took immediate steps to ensure all of the pub's systems, including OpenTable, were secured.

"We quickly contacted guests who may be impacted to warn them that anyone telephoning and saying that they are from the pub and requesting personal details is fraudulent. We have reported this incident to the Police and Action Fraud and are supporting them in building a case by providing all the information we have relating to this situation. We would encourage any of our guests to do the same.

"Thanks to the quick, decisive action taken by the pub and our IT teams, we are confident a situation like this will not happen again. Dom, Shell and the team at the pub would like to thank their guests and community for their continued support over the weekend."