Sainsbury’s has boosted the security of its Nectar points app, in a bid to help protect shoppers being defrauded of their Nectar reward points.
The supermarket began rolling out a new ‘Spend Lock’ at the start of February. The security feature allows shoppers to freeze their account, and set where their reward points can be redeemed.
Previously there was no lock or limit on where points could be redeemed, meaning that in theory anyone with access to an account holder’s barcode or account number could redeem the points.
The lock is one of a number of security measures Sainsbury’s has introduced over recent months after hundreds of Sainsbury’s shoppers reported having their accumulated Nectar points stolen.
The Mail’s This Is Money, which first highlighted the issue, reported in January that Sainsbury’s customers had been defrauded of an estimated 12.5 million rewards points, worth the equivalent of more than £63,000 over the past year, by scammers who had accessed their Nectar accounts.
Dozens of shoppers contacted the paper claiming they had been defrauded of their points. Some claimed their rewards had been redeemed in shops hundreds of miles from where they live, despite fraudsters seemingly having no access to their physical card, app or other information.
The supermarket has not revealed how scammers had been able to access such vast amounts of data, claiming that doing so publicly could encourage more scammers. However, the Mail has reported that criminals have been circulating lists of thousands of anonymous Nectar account numbers via secure messaging apps, with some even selling access to accounts.
The problem has become more pronounced as Sainsbury’s has ramped up the Nectar scheme following the launch of Nectar Prices in April 2023.
Now, if the function is enabled, an account holder will have to give manual permission each time they attempt to redeem points. The lock – which now appears in the app’s settings – can only be actioned or disabled by the account holder. However, The Grocer understands the lock has still not been fully rolled out to all Nectar accounts.
Digital crime is a growing problem for supermarkets
Nectar points are accumulated each time a shopper scans their card, based on the total amount of the transaction, and can be redeemed with money-off shops in Sainsbury’s and Argos or through one of Nectar’s recognised partners, which include British Airways and the Woodland Trust.
“We’ve recently introduced a new spend lock feature to add an extra layer of security to our customer accounts, allowing customers to lock their points until they’re ready to spend them,” a Nectar spokeswoman said.
”Security is our highest priority and we have a range of measures which help to safeguard our customers’ points.”
Fraud and digital security is becoming a growing issue for supermarkets who like Sainsbury’s, have been expanding their use of data and digital technology.
The supermarket was bombarded by a wave of fraudulent coupons during the summer of 2024, and had to introduce a number of measures and extra permissions to its self-service tills to minimise the problem.
It followed a series of major IT outages, which halted online deliveries and affected card payments in a number of stores in May.
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