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Starbucks Coffee published a notice warning customers to be careful with card passwords in the wake of numerous reports suggesting the store's mobile payments app had been "hacked" and used by thieves to draw funds from customers' accounts.

The original report was published by blogger Bob Sullivan, an author and former investigative reporter whose byline still appears on several national news websites. In a nutshell, customers noticed their Starbucks accounts were being repeatedly reloaded with funds from their financial institution accounts by thieves using the app's "auto reload" feature.

Starbucks, in its statement, said reports of a hack were "false" and instead published information about ensuring strong password protection. Still, other reports said Starbucks doesn't use two-factor authentication for its app.

Sullivan's report was picked up by several national news outlets and trade press, including Credit Union Times, which reported the incident Friday. Snopes.com, a site that tracks reports and misinformation about Internet incidents, also covered it.