When £450 worth of Nectar points were stolen from my account, I was told to investigate myself

When Nectar points worth £450 were stolen from Usamah Ward’s account, the 62-year-old was horrified but was reassured when the company’s customer service told him he would be refunded the full amount.

The married father of two has been collecting Nectar points for 20 years. He had accumulated more than 90,000 points on the loyalty card scheme by faithfully shopping at the Sainsbury’s branch in Whitechapel and, very occasionally, at the Beckton shopping park store, both close to his home and office in east London. .

The construction manager had not redeemed a single point in over ten years.

But checking his account in July he saw that almost half of them – worth £232.50 – had been spent at the Whitechapel and Beckton branches.

She immediately called Nectar’s customer service team, who were very understanding and told her that the points would be credited back to her account, with an additional 2,000 points added for the inconvenience.

But although Nectar gave Usamah a new card and account ten days later, it did not reimburse him for the stolen points. He also did not transfer the 29,000 points, worth £145, remaining in his old account to his new one.

Nectar refused to return the points because he had spent them at two Sainsbury’s stores he had previously shopped at. He told Usamah that he would have to investigate himself and prove that he had been a victim of fraud.

Money Mail and This Is Money have been inundated with hundreds of letters from readers who have had their Nectar points stolen by criminals.

Sainsbury’s, which owns Nectar, says it will investigate and refund the stolen points.

But in a growing number of cases we’re seeing, Nectar is refusing to refund points spent by criminals at stores where the victim shopped in the past.

Around 18 million shoppers have a Nectar account, which allows you to accumulate points as you spend at stores such as Argos and Sainsbury’s and on eBay which can then be used to buy items at these and other selected retailers.

Customers typically earn one point for every £1 spent, with some exceptions. Each point is worth 0.5p, so customers typically need to spend £200 to get £1 worth of Nectar points.

Shoppers do not need their physical card to accumulate and redeem Nectar points; They can also use the app when they are in the store or an online account if they shop on a website.

This means that if scammers know your login details for your online account or application, or simply your account number, they do not need to possess the physical card to gain access to your points.

In Usamah’s case, Nectar customer service gave him the following instructions via email: ‘We would like to inform you that the points have been used in Beckton and Whitechapel, where you have made purchases from in the past.

“Therefore, we kindly ask you to visit the same store for further investigation (sic).”

When he visited the Whitechapel store, the manager used Usamah’s old Nectar number to find out the time of transactions. You could then access the CCTV to find out when the points were spent.

He discovered two men had used a bank card stored on a smartphone to make a 72p purchase at a self-service machine.

When making the transaction, they chose the option on the screen that allows members who forgot to bring their Nectar card to enter their account number or scan a barcode generated in advance using Usamah account details.

The receipt for this small transaction will have shown Usamah’s total Nectar point balance. The two men then filled a shopping trolley with items worth a total of £52.50 and used Usamah points to pay for it. Another £180 of his points were spent at Beckton.

Finally Usamah had proof that he had not been the one who had spent the points. However, he believes Nectar should have blocked the transaction in the first place because it was out of character.

‘I’ve been saving them for years. My kids are now 29 and 26 and the last time I redeemed Nectar points, they were teenagers.

I cashed them in at the time to buy annual passes to the theme parks. From then on, I just let them accumulate until I could put them to good use.’

Usamah told Nectar about the research results using an online chatbot. He followed up with a phone call and sent two letters describing his case to Nectar headquarters.

Finally, after a three-month wait, Usamah received the points from his old account, but not the ones that had been stolen.

In an email, he was told again that Nectar had found nothing suspicious and that he would not receive any refund. He added: “If you wish to go further I would advise you to contact your local police who can carry out their own investigation.”

After Money Mail contacted Nectar, it admitted it had made a mistake with Mr Ward’s points and has since received a refund.

A spokesperson says: “We have contacted Mr Ward to apologize for his experience and have arranged for his Nectar points to be refunded to his new account.”

But Usamah is not the only Nectar customer to have his fraud claims rejected.

In most cases we’ve seen, the points were spent miles away from the customer’s regular store, making it much easier to prove they were stolen. As Usamah discovered, it’s much more complicated if the points are spent at your regular store.

Adrian Swain, 72, does his weekly food shopping at his local Sainsbury’s in east London every Saturday morning at 7am without fail.

The retired teacher has built up a sizeable stash of 40,000 Nectar points, worth £200, which he had planned to spend on his granddaughter at Christmas.

But at the end of September, he realized that 8,000 points (around £40) had disappeared from his account. Someone had made a small purchase, worth one Nectar point, on their account before using 8,000 points to buy £40 worth of items.

Swain says he didn’t lose his physical card or lend it to anyone else, since he lives alone. When she called Nectar customer service, they also told her there was very little they could do because it had happened at their local store.

But Swain says there was “no chance” it was him because the transaction took place on a Wednesday afternoon.

Although she was told there was little Nectar could do, she was told to report her case to the police. Mr Swain decided to ask about the robbery during his usual Saturday shop.

“Everyone there knows me, I go at the same time every week,” he says. Sainsbury’s employees suggested the store had suffered similar thefts. A senior employee said he would watch the store’s CCTV.

But in the six weeks since the robbery, Swain has not seen them or the images. He says he has been moved between the customer service teams at Sainsbury’s and Nectar.

Even after Money Mail contacted Sainsbury’s, it insisted the transactions were not fraudulent. Mr Swain says: ‘Why would you spend £1 and then use 8,000 points? It’s not me.’

Nectar did not answer questions about its policy on points stolen from customers’ local stores and why it had asked customers to investigate themselves.

Swain said the saga had prompted him to cash in his remaining points and he now has a “very well-stocked” closet.

He says he won’t stop shopping at Sainsbury’s, largely because it is his only local store, but he will stop saving his Nectar points and withdraw them when they reach £5.

Usamah will do the same and use his points more often, but he’s still worried about his data.

“It seems pretty clear that Nectar knows there’s a problem, but isn’t doing anything about it.”

• Have you been denied a refund for stolen Nectar points? Then send an email: moneymail@dailymail.co.uk