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Shoppers who have saved a high number of Nectar points are being warned to check their balance after a spate of stolen points scams prompted the introduction of extra security measures.
More than 18mn people in the UK are members of the loyalty scheme operated by supermarket J Sainsbury, collecting points on the Nectar app or card when they spend on groceries, in Argos, or at Esso petrol stations.
Points can be spent in store, or converted into Avios to spend on British Airways flights if Nectar users connect their BA Executive Club account.
Scammers appear to be targeting shoppers who save points all year round to spend on the big Christmas shop.
Jacqueline Longworth from Staffordshire discovered 17,000 Nectar points worth £90 had been fraudulently spent in a store in Beckton, east London, even though her Nectar card had never left her purse.
When she reported the incident last weekend, her £90 balance was reinstated and a new card was issued, but Nectar could not offer her any explanation of how the scam had occurred. “People might want to check their balance as cyber criminals are targeting these cards, and many people rely on these points for festive season spending,” said Longworth.
Other Nectar card holders have contacted FT Money this week having suffered similar experiences; all have had stolen points promptly refunded.
Nectar said there had not been a data breach, and that the issue was only affecting a small number of Nectar members. They refused to elaborate on exactly how points were being stolen, claiming that releasing these details could encourage more fraud attempts.
“The security of our customer accounts is our highest priority and we have a range of measures which detect, and in many cases prevent, fraud,” Nectar said.
These include asking shoppers who spend more than £50 worth of points in Argos to show photo ID that matches their Nectar account, and sending out email alerts to users whenever Nectar points are spent requesting that they check and report any fraudulent transactions.
Richard, an FT Money reader, discovered he had been scammed this week when he received an email alert showing someone had spent 1,000 points in central London and a further 2,500 at a petrol station in Birmingham.
“The customer care team were very good once we managed to get through to them, and assured us the points would be returned, but they were not the least bit surprised we were scammed,” he said.
The Nectar helpline can be contacted on 0344 811 0811.
