POCATELLO — Will Linch was getting his hair cut in Pocatello when he learned a stranger had just used his credit card to pay for an Uber ride in San Francisco.

Linch was one of several local residents who had unauthorized funds taken from their bank accounts, apparently resulting from hackers compromising the vendor the city uses to take municipal utility bill payments online via transaction cards.

Pocatello police say several people who pay their city bills via the online system with a debit or credit card have recently reported similar losses due to the hack, ranging from $30 to thousands of dollars. A few city service customers who pay with financial cards have also posted personal anecdotes of losses in excess of $2,500 on the Journal’s Facebook page.

Sgt. Brian McClure said police are collaborating with the city, other police agencies and other governmental agencies in their ongoing investigation.

McClure said some victims have filed reports with police, but “what’s actually been reported to the police department is just a snapshot” of the problem. City spokesman Logan McDougall said the city is also working with its vendor, Click2Gov, as it investigates the matter.

Linch said his credit card was declined when he went to pay for his haircut, so he called his financial institution, ISU Credit Union, and learned they’d placed a hold on his account due to suspicious activity. Fortunately, the bank caught the illegal purchases after just $75 had gone through and with $250 still pending.

Linch said he’s filing paperwork to officially dispute the fraudulent transactions.

When he went to his bank to discuss the issue with staff, he said about seven other customers were there regarding missing funds, which they attributed to the security breach.

“There were a couple of people who had a couple of thousand taken out of their account before they caught it,” Linch said.

McClure said police discovered the security breach while investigating run-of-the-mill fraud cases and noticed a few involved unauthorized Uber payments from California.

“The first couple we found were from Southern California,” McClure said. “They’ve since spread everywhere. There is no more commonality of tracking them.”

McClure said anyone who believes their account may have been compromised should contact their financial institutions. Police also recommend that residents check their accounts carefully and replace debit or credit cards used to pay city bills online, if it gives them greater peace of mind.

City officials did not offer details about the timeline of the hack, citing the ongoing investigation.

“We are working diligently with the portal provider and cybersecurity experts to determine the nature and scope of this event,” the city advised in a press release.