Experts have issued a fresh warning to Sainsbury’s customers after a shopper reported having two years of her Nectar points stolen.
This is Money revealed earlier this year that Nectar had introduced a ‘lock’ feature on its loyalty card scheme, meaning any account can be frozen until the customer decides to spend their reward points.
The announcement came after an investigation revealed that 12.5 million Nectar points worth nearly £63,000 had been stolen from our readers over the period of a year.
And just last week, another customer reported on social media that 3,000 points had been stolen from her account after they were used in a Twickenham branch.
She posted: ‘Someone has stolen 3,000 of my Nectar points?
‘I have never been to Twickenham in my life and I have been saving these points for two years to help pay for Christmas. Please look into this.’
The claims have prompted cybersecurity experts to urge customers to take a fresh look at their accounts in order to prevent potentially criminal activity.
‘It’s especially important to monitor accounts more often just before Christmas,’ Jake Moore, Eset’s Global Security Advisor told The Sun.
Experts have issued a fresh warning to Sainsbury’s customers after a shopper reported having two years of her Nectar points stolen (Stock Image)
This is Money revealed earlier this year that Nectar had introduced a ‘lock’ feature on its loyalty card scheme (Stock Image)
Our investigation revealed that 12.5 million Nectar points worth nearly £63,000 had been stolen from readers over the period of a year – thankfully most of these were refunded by Sainsbury’s (Stock Image)
‘This is usually when criminals target accounts with points that have been accumulated over the year.’
He added that accounts should be checked ‘frequently to detect and report any unauthorised actions promptly’.
Only primary users of the account should be able to lock and unlock spending on their Nectar accounts with the new locking feature, while additional collectors will only be able to collect points.
It was brought in to allow customers to start saving their points again without fear of them being stolen by fraudsters.
Thankfully most of the customers affected in This is Money’s investigation were refunded by Sainsbury’s, which owns Nectar.
A Nectar spokesperson today told MailOnline: ‘Nectar is one of the UK’s biggest loyalty schemes, with over 23 million members.
‘The security of our customer accounts is our highest priority and the proportion of those impacted by fraud each year is very small.
‘We have a range of measures which detect, and in many cases prevent fraud, including our Spend Lock feature.
‘Our Nectar Helpline team are on hand to support any customer who suspects they may have been a victim of fraud.’
