Stolen Nectar Points

DCFC79

welshbookworm wrote: »

Did you lose one of the small cards? (the ones that go on your keys)

Key fob is what you refer too.

AbrahamLincoln

BoGoF wrote: »

Does anyone else in your household hold the same nectar card? You say you haven't been into the Sainsburys in question - how far away from you is it?

The store in question is about five miles from where I live, which I believe is part of the reason Nectar won't accept that I didn't redeem the points myself. However, in central London, five miles is probably hundreds of stores. Nectar shared with me the list of items that had been bought with the redemption, and I don't know the person who'd be buying these things at that time.

On other cards, I don't think I've had key fobs etc. but can't be 100% sure of that - I believe the original card is one I just picked up at the till in Sainsburys in about 2009, and registered online. The replacement one now actually has my name printed on it.

On the questions around statements and emails etc: I've unsubscribed from everything I can, but do log in to see how things are going occasionally. However, as Nectar blocked my account and re-issued the card I wasn’t able to log in, and it took me several months to get around to re-registering.

Thanks for the input so far. I still don't feel I understand what my rights are nor know what the best next move it. Any more pointers are welcome.

WillyWonga

Try and avoid big balances on Nectar, PayPal etc etc as open to fraud. Cash out ASAP. If scheme goes bust so does your points/cash.

DCFC79

It was covered on Watchdog, maybe they mentioned what to do.

glennevis

There's something fundamentally wrong with the way Nectar card system is administered.
I moved house and before going to my new 'local' store (15 miles away!) I wanted to change my nominated local store so I could use my balance for purchases. In-store staff referred me to CS phone number, when I was advised that the only way to change the local store was by shopping and spending over £1 twice. After that my local store would reset and I could use my balance for purchases.
So if someone gets hold of your card or spare fob or somehow clones the card, what's to stop them from making a couple of small purchases then going for a big shop and wiping out the balance?

Ben8282

Your OP lacks the necessary information to enable anybody to understand what has happened.
You state:
Nectar recently blocked my account and sent me a new card. When I registered the new card, I saw that I had £55 fewer points than I expected.
You do not however explain WHY Nectar blocked your account and sent you a new card nor do you say what happened to the original card.

Marksfish

Old post, but to add I became a victim of Nectar fraud last weekend. I received an email stating my email address had been changed, so contacted support. They changed my address back and blocked the card. So what happens? Next day I get another change of address email and by the time I get to customer services, 36,500 points have been redeemed on eBay (about £180). How did that happen with a blocked card? I now have a new card with my points back and also 2000 bonus points, but there is no security on the card to prevent things like this happening. I collect the points throughout the year to do the big December shop in Sainsbury's, but there is no way of protecting them. Now Sainsbury's have bought Nectar, I would have thought they would be tightening up a bit"

Fingerbobs

I'm intrigued by the people saying they get regular letters from Nectar with vouchers in them. I used to get Sainsbury's and occasionally Homebase vouchers through the post, but I have had b****r all from Nectar for several years now, despite actively using my Nectar card fairly frequently.

Since the Watchdog story, I redeem my points as soon as I reach £2.50 now.

Terry98

I know this is an old thread but for anybody still interested more information on The Watchdog Story:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1gJz1n3J50ZHYP1NcFHVYBY/nectar-fraud

Nasqueron

Marksfish wrote: »

Old post, but to add I became a victim of Nectar fraud last weekend. I received an email stating my email address had been changed, so contacted support. They changed my address back and blocked the card. So what happens? Next day I get another change of address email and by the time I get to customer services, 36,500 points have been redeemed on eBay (about £180). How did that happen with a blocked card? I now have a new card with my points back and also 2000 bonus points, but there is no security on the card to prevent things like this happening. I collect the points throughout the year to do the big December shop in Sainsbury's, but there is no way of protecting them. Now Sainsbury's have bought Nectar, I would have thought they would be tightening up a bit"

Card blocks don't happen immediately, you got the alert through, by that time they had already got access to your account and spent the points.

The fact is, based on what you described of having your account email changed means you had either a weak password which they guessed or had some sort of password logger on your machine (make sure your home PC / mobile is thoroughly scanned for viruses and malware - use a couple of programs, don't just rely on one) or used the login on a compromised PC. The person then got your details, logged in, changed login details and spent the points immediately on something that is hard to trace.

Ensure your password is secure - the longer the better. I like to use a system whereby you take a long word and add a couple of letters to the front for each website. So long as your password is sufficiently strong that it can't be brute force attacked then it's pretty good - the longer the better in password cracking terms

e.g. you take a word like "punishment" and you want to use it for MSE, you make it MSpunishment and then add some extra characters on the end, maybe 5!? if the site would let it go

Based on the "how secure is my password site"

punishment could be cracked in 59 minutes of computer time
MSpunishment becomes 300 years
MSpunishment5 becomes 158,000 years
MSpunishment5!? becomes 429 billion years

Even if you use a pass phrase like "howsecureismypassword" note - no capitals, no numbers, no special characters - it would take 410 billion years of computer time to crack