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Original poster

Nectar points theft

18 replies

Ihaveausername · 20/10/2025 18:18

Just wanted to find out if anyone else has experienced this. Yesterday I received an email from nectar confirming a recent spend transaction on my nectar account. I have never had this email before so initially thought it might be a scam. But when I checked my account the transaction had actually happened and it wasn't me.
I phoned them this morning and was amazed at the way the conversation went. It was like this happened all the time. A new card was ordered and points credited back to account without questioning. I did ask how this could have happened, and she said that someone could just have generated random numbers.
But how could this happen surely to spend points you need either the card or the app open with a barcode. It was used in a store rather than online. Maybe they didn't want to tell me in case I tried it!
I was told that I can turn spending off in the app or by going online and this will prevent it happening in the future. Why was I not aware of this before now? Apparently nectar introduced this earlier this year because of similar incidents. Does it happen a lot?

OP posts:
NConthe · 20/10/2025 18:25

Well yes they’ve had problems, as you’ve found out. They sent out an email and it was on the app about locking your spending earlier this year. Everyone I’ve spoken to about it has their spending locked now.

Strollingby · 20/10/2025 18:28

It happened to me a couple of Christmas's ago, expected to have most of my shopping covered and had a negative points balance.
Nectar were pretty efficient at crediting pints and sending out new card. Like you I got the impression it was a routine event.

ThreeCorners · 20/10/2025 18:30

I’ve read a thread about this before so it must be something that happens. I’ve gpt a faint recollection that it was something to do with receipts.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General shopping
ThreeCorners · 20/10/2025 18:31

Like, people collecting abandoned receipts and then using the information on there to use the points.

Beaniebobbins · 20/10/2025 18:33

We had this happen a few weeks ago. The points were spent about 200 miles away from where we live in a store we have never been in. Card was not stolen anything. Sorted very quickly when we called them and they advised you can set a lock for points spending on the app that should prevent it happening again.

staringatthesun · 20/10/2025 18:36

This happened to my mum, it was a faff to sort out, but she was compensated with extra points

IvedoneitagainhaventI · 20/10/2025 18:37

It's very worrying op

I know that fraud involving the stealing of Nectar points had been an issue for quite a while now.

And I'm quite obsessive about keeping the spending locked on my nectar points.

But. I had been under the impression that they had this fraud under control now. I thought it had been established it was actually internal fraud?

Given the length of time this has been an issue there is no excuse for the problem not having been resolved.

Vinculum · 20/10/2025 18:39

It was like this happened all the time

Thats because it does happen all the time. Happened to me a few months ago and I found out because they emailed me saying I’d spent thousands of points at a Sainsburys miles away (and obviously, I hadn’t). Then another email about thousands more.

It was resolved in that they reinstated the points and gave us a new account but it took ages to sort because DH insists on a physical card (I use the app) and they took weeks to send them.

There was a lot of reaction when You & Yours mentioned it on R4 and were inundated with people it had happened to. Very belatedly Nectar introduced a lockdown feature so it shouldn’t be happening any more, but your experience suggests it is, @Ihaveausername

NConthe · 20/10/2025 18:49

It’s not people going and picking up abandoned receipts from trolleys! They’re being skimmed and then used at petrol stations in and around London usually.

Keep your spending locked!

TheJustJoker · 20/10/2025 18:54

Yep happened to me in May. Email saying I’d spent so many points somewhere I’d never heard of. To be fair got straight onto a web chat and someone picked up quickly (and it was 7pm). New account set up , just tapped new number into the app and my lost points were restored promptly. PP mentioned about data being gleaned from receipts. I always shred and hide mine so not sure that’s how they hack you. Anyway fair play to Nectar - not bothering with a physical card and now I always keep my points locked. I’d only lost a fiver but even so….

EndlessDistraction · 20/10/2025 18:57

It happened to my friend last week, sorted very quickly, this has reminded me, I can’t lock mine because the app says I’m a secondary cardholder, well, I’m not so I need to ring them and sort that. But I never let mine get above about £10 balance now because of this.

mcmuffin22 · 20/10/2025 19:17

Happened to me a few months ago and the points were reinstated. Interesting what someone said about internal fraud. I also had a gift voucher fraud thing happen about a year ago at a Sainsbury's.

LittleGreenDuck · 20/10/2025 19:20

Yep, happened to me. The points were spent in two separate transactions in, if I recall correctly, Putney Sainsburys. We live about 100 miles from Putney and have never shopped there.

I called Nector and they weren't surprised at all. They could see it wasn't my usual pattern of spending, sent me a new card and reinstated the points straight away, no fuss at all. Like you, I asked how this could have happened and they suggested the random selection of numbers theory.

NotForTheMoneyandNotForTheApplause · 20/10/2025 19:23

This has been going on for years, puts me off bothering with nectar points. I locked my app when it was the advice to do so and now it won't let me spend the points

They'd be better writing a more robust sustem

NanTheWiser · 20/10/2025 22:09

Another victim here. Happened last March, I too had an email saying my points had been used miles away. I phoned them, got a new account and points reimbursed, but had to chase them up for a new card (it wasn’t sent automatically), and now lock my points every week. There were several threads on MN at the time, so it appears to e very common.

TheIncredibleBookEatingManchot · 20/10/2025 22:18

But how could this happen surely to spend points you need either the card or the app open with a barcode.

You don't need a barcode, you can type in the number.

I've typed in my Nectar number when the barcode wouldn't scan, and spent the points.

Maybe someone trying random numbers got lucky and happened to type in the number for an account (yours) that wasn't locked and had available points to spend.

lemonraspberry · 20/10/2025 22:23

This has been going on for months. I had my points used miles away, they reimbursed them, sent me a new card. That got targeted and had to be frozen. When I tried to login, none of my details worked and as the chat facility could not define which card I had to answer questions on they locked me out.

I gave up, cut the card in two and now go to Tesco.

Mausbajiiw · 21/10/2025 10:29

It wasn’t internal fraud. You can see videos on YouTube of how they do it, they use random number generators and barcode creators and scan those and see if they are linked to an account. Normally they earn a small amount of points (1/2) then they go back and spend the points. Once they did the small shop, they’d receive a receipt that told them How many points the account has to spend.

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