Supermarket giant Woolworths has issued a warning to customers after the company became a target of an online scam.
The company wrote to hundreds of members of its popular Rewards club about potentially fraudulent redemptions on their accounts. It’s believed the fraudsters were able to access the accounts by using valid login and password details.
Woolworths has confirmed all customers effected will receive their hard earned points back, while company Director of Loyalty Ingrid Maes reassured shoppers that their security was Woolies’ top priority.
“We value the trust of our member and take our responsibility to uphold the security of their accounts seriously,” the Daily Mail reported Maes as saying.
In order to prevent hackers from accessing accounts again, the supermarket giant has introduced new security measures such as one-time codes and auto-notification if changes are made. This means Rewards program members will have to enter a unique code sent to their email address if they want to change details on their account. They will also receive an immediate notification via email when changes are made.
Read more: Customers are getting ripped off in supermarket rewards card scam
Unfortunately this is not the first time customers appear to have become victim of a Rewards program scam. Just last year, one loyal shopper highlighted on an OzBargain forum how their card had been hacked and their points stolen and used.
“My new Woolworths rewards card has been hacked, points already used in other state while I only received today,” they wrote. “Applied the card last month with 5,000 points bonus, I received the card today, login, and found the points were used in another state two weeks ago.”
The forum thread attracted many comments from others who have been stung by the scam, including one user who said that their points had been used on a gift card they did not purchase, but Woolworths customer service had refunded the points and changed the card number after being contacted.
The Rewards system gives customers one point per dollar spent at the supermarket giant or its affiliated stores including Big W, Caltex service stations and BWS liquor stores. Certain items are promoted as earning bonus points for a limited time, with accumulated points being redeemable for money off a shopping bill.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that hundreds of Woolworths customers had been impacted by the potential fraud, not 11 million customers as was previously reported.
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