Sainsbury's shoppers urged to lock Nectar card points
Back in February, the supermarket introduced a new 'Spend Lock' security feature to its Nectar loyalty app.
The move was put in place as a way to prevent points from being spent by anyone other than the primary account holder.
This meant loyalty members could 'freeze' their points while also choosing to set where their points could be spent.
It comes as in January, an investigation by the Daily Mail's This Is Money, found Sainsbury's customers had lost an estimated 12.5 million Nectar points (worth more than £63,000 over the past year) by fraudsters accessing their accounts.
But now, Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at Eset is urging shoppers to monitor their account activity "frequently to detect and report any unauthorised actions promptly".
He told The Sun: "It is especially important to monitor accounts more often just before Christmas as this is usually when criminals target accounts with points that have been accumulated over the year."
Elsewhere, consumer expert Martyn James explained to the publisher that many people will be "unaware" that their Nectar points have disappeared.
He shared: "That's because we rarely look at the app or check the total on our receipts."
Martyn continued: "Download the latest version of the app and activate the lock feature.'
If you haven't locked your Nectar points yet and are wondering how, it's easy - you can do so on the Nectar card app (available for free on the Apple store or Google Play).
Once logged in, on your profile icon, head to 'settings' and then tap 'lock or unlock spending'.
You then swipe the bar to either 'unlock' or 'lock', depending on your preferences.
Have you chosen to lock your Nectar points? (Image: PA) Sainsbury's customers can change whether they want to lock or unlock Nectar points any time through the app – to spend them, they must be unlocked.
Additionally, customers can continue to earn points as they shop even when spending is locked.
A Nectar spokesperson said: "Nectar is one of the UK's biggest loyalty schemes, with over 23 million members.
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"The security of our customer accounts is our highest priority and the proportion of those impacted by fraud each year is very small.
"We have a range of measures which detect, and in many cases prevent fraud, including our Spend Lock feature.
"Our Nectar Helpline team are on hand to support any customer who suspects they may have been a victim of fraud.'
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