When Nectar points worth £450 were stolen from my account, I was told to do my own investigation

When Nectar points worth £450 were stolen from Usamah Ward’s account, the 62-year-old was shocked but reassured when the company’s customer service team said it would refund him in full.

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

The building manager had not redeemed a single point in more than a decade.

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

He immediately called Nectar customer service, who were very responsive and told him the points would be credited back to his account, with another 2,000 points added for the inconvenience.

But although Nectar gave Usamah a new card and bill ten days later, the stolen points were not refunded. Also, the 29,000 points, worth £145, that were still in his old account were not transferred to the new one.

Nectar refused to return the points because they had been spent at two Sainsbury’s stores where he had previously shopped. It told Usamah to do his own investigation 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 whose Nectar points have been stolen by criminals.

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

But in a growing number of cases, Nectar is refusing to return points spent by scammers at stores where the victim has shopped in the past.

Around 18 million shoppers have a Nectar account, which allows you to collect points when you spend in stores such as Argos and Sainsbury’s and on eBay, which you can then use to buy items from 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 have to spend £200 to get £1 worth of Nectar points.

Shoppers don’t need their physical card to collect and redeem Nectar points; they can also use the app in-store or an online account if shopping on a website.

This means that if fraudsters know your online account or app login details, or simply your account number, they don’t need to have the physical card to access your points.

In Usamah’s case, he received the following email instruction from Nectar customer service: ‘We would like to let you know that the points have been used at Beckton and Whitechapel where you have shopped in the past.

“We kindly request 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 trace the time of the transactions. He could then access the camera images when the points were issued.

He discovered that two men had used a bank card on a smartphone to make a 72 cent purchase at a self-service checkout.

When conducting the transaction, they chose the on-screen option that allows members who forgot to bring their Nectar card to enter their account number instead, or by scanning a pre-generated barcode using Usamah’s account details .

The receipt for this small transaction will show Usamah’s total Nectar points balance. The two men then filled a shopping trolley with items worth a total of £52.50 and used Usamah’s points to pay for them. A further £180 of his points were spent in Beckton.

Finally, Usamah had proof that it was not he who 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 redeemed them at the time to buy annual theme park passes. Since then I just left them until I could put them to good use.’

Usamah told Nectar the results of the survey via an online chatbot. He followed up with a phone call and sent two letters stating his case to Nectar’s headquarters.

Finally, after three months of waiting, Usamah received the points from his old account, but not the points that had been stolen.

He was again told in an email that Nectar had found nothing suspicious and that he would not receive a refund. It added: ‘If you wish to proceed with this I would recommend that you contact your local police who can conduct their own investigation.’

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

A spokesperson said: ‘We have contacted Mr Ward to apologize for his experience and have arranged for his Nectar points to be returned to his new account.’

But Usamah isn’t the only Nectar customer who has had his fraud claims rejected.

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

Adrian Swain, 72, does his weekly food shop at his local Sainsbury’s in east London every Saturday morning at 7am.

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

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

Mr Swain says he has not lost his physical card or lent it to anyone else because he lives alone. When he called Nectar customer service, he was also told there was little they could do because it had happened at his local store.

But Mr Swain said there was ‘no chance’ it was him because a transaction took place on Wednesday afternoon.

Despite being told there was little Nectar could do, he was told to report his case to the police. Mr Swain decided to inquire about the theft during his usual Saturday shopping.

“All the people know me there, I go at the same time every week,” he says. Sainsbury’s staff suggested the store had experienced similar thefts. A senior employee said he would look at the store’s CCTV footage.

But in the six weeks since the theft, Mr Swain has not seen them or the images. He says he found himself caught between the customer service teams at Sainsbury’s and Nectar.

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

Nectar did not answer questions about its policy on stolen points at customers’ local stores and why it had asked customers to do their own investigation.

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

He says he won’t stop shopping at Sainsbury’s, especially as it is his only local store, but will stop collecting his Nectar points and cash them out when they reach £5.

Usamah will do the same and use his points more often, but he is still concerned 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? Send an email to: moneymail@dailymail.co.uk