Consumers making legitimate bookings on Open Table are being scammed. Here’s how it works.

1. Scammer obtains an Open Table login. Quite easy really. They often phone up the restaurant, pretending to be OT, but could just as easily be an employee or ex-employee.
2. They look through forthcoming bookings, paying particular attention to special requests. Birthday, table position etc
3. Call up the unsuspecting customer; refer to some of the above details to build a sense of trust/authenticity; then ask for payment (or possibly even refund) of deposit.
4. Customer provides credit card details.
5. You know what happens next…..

Open Table are doing everything they can to stop restaurants compromising their login details and are very clear they will never call up and ask for these. Customers booking on the platform are also being warned.

Nevertheless, if you do book through OT or another of these services and get a call asking for your card details, hopefully you’ll now know what not to do.