MSE News: Shopitize users furious after being locked out of 'linked' accounts

This is the truth about Shopitize, who suddenly accused a very large group of its members of fraud.
I’m sure you are all familiar with the principal of cashback websites and apps.
Shopitize state that they have about 100,000 members, and they always encourage them to introduce their friends and family to join. They even offer an incentive of £3 for introducing a new member.
So Mother and Father can have a separate account. Children over 13 can have their own account, the system will only allow a receipt to be used once. Family members will often share a common device, such as an I-pad or use their own I-phone.
Nowhere in their T&C did it state “one account per household” or “one account per device” (I-pad or I-phone) So one family could have more than one account, providing they were real people and only uploaded their own receipts from their own shopping. There are no rules against holding separate accounts with other cashback sites.
(They have just changed this rule since this disastrous PR exercise. Now it is “one account per device”)

Then on or about Oct. 25th. Shopitize simultaneously blocked a very large group of member’s accounts. The members discovered they were locked out and their passwords didn’t work. They couldn’t check their balance or draw out their money. When they complained, they each received this blanket email, virtually accusing them all of fraud. They offered no real explanation, They would not provide any proof or evidence of when these so called fraudulent transactions had taken place.
All further email to Shopitize where completely ignored, It seems very odd that they blocked so many accounts at exactly the same time without any warning. I suppose if there had been any warning, people would have whipped their money out quick. My son uses his own I.pad, he uploads his own receipts independently of anyone else. Yet he has had his account permanently deactivated and his funds withheld. He had been saving up for months.
So to me the whole exercise was about money and not rules.

This is the first email that everyone received after enquiring why they could not access their account.

As you have noticed you can no longer access your account.

As a precautionary method against fraudulent activity we have deactivated all accounts that are linked to multiple other accounts.

We understand that in some cases friends or family members may share a communal device when using Shopitize and we have taken this into consideration. The account you are referring to is connected to a number of other accounts that is above the level we deem to be fraudulent and therefore unfortunately the account has been suspended.

If you believe that you are not in breach of our terms & conditions and the accounts associated with yours are justified, then please provide any knowledge you may have as to why these associated accounts may appear.
We are currently looking further into this and when we have a better understanding of the situation we will be in touch to the email address your account is registered under.

If you have been intentionally using multiple accounts to take advantage of our system, then we advise that you use this investigation period to come forward and return any funds claimed illegitimately before legal action will be taken against you.

Thank you.

(You will notice that this first email ends with an intimidating threat).

Then came the second email.

OCT 28, 2016 | 06:18PM BST
Sara replied:
Hi there

As per our terms and conditions we retain the right to suspend, and ultimately cancel, accounts of users where we believe that an abuse of Shopitize services has occurred. We conduct regular reviews and in your case our system has picked up some potential abusive activities on your account(s). As a result therefore the system has suspended your account(s) pending further investigation.

This process may take some time but we will be in contact as soon as possible to inform you of the final decision. We will be in touch soon.


It has now been over two weeks and still no answers or explanations from them. Members have been liasing through facebook and posting their complaints on the Shopitize wall. It has become apparent that an awful lot of members have been blocked and their money frozen.
I posted a group page on Facebook where people could add messages and relate their expeiences with Sopitize.
My wife and I and our boys had been saving up for Christmas through Shopitize, we had collectively over £600. All our accounts have been permanently deactivated and our money withheld by shopitize.
We have records of every transaction we have ever made and there is no evidence of any fraudulent activity.
We have learned this week that an isolated few members have had their accounts unblocked but their money has been withheld.


We contacted Martin Lewis and his team at M.S.E. who said they would look into the matter for us. When they tried to contact Shopitize, they refused to speak to them. M.S.E are still investigating.

There has been a lot of speculation about Shopitize this last two weeks. One theory is; they are in financial trouble and are using this debacle as an excuse to reduce their debts. And looking at the state of their accounts at companies’ house, this may well be the case. Shopitize have not posted anything on their Facebook page since September 1st.
Throughout this whole shambles, they haven't produced one single shred of evidence.

Shopitize have now started to deactivate a lot of accounts and withhold all the funds in them. Account holders have no leave of appeal, no opportunity to answer these accusations. Their decision is final, surely they can’t all be fraudulent. Even murderers are entitled to a fair trial. This puts the British legal system back a hundred years.