Rachel* had diligently saved her Nectar points throughout 2024 and was looking forward to spending them on a bottle of Remy Cognac for herself at Christmas.

By chance, the tipple was on offer in her local Sainsbury's meaning her 10,000 points, worth £50, would have covered the full cost.

But just days before Christmas, she noticed that her entire Nectar balance had been used in a store hundreds of miles away from her home.

Unfortunately, Rachel is not alone. During the course of December, This Is Money heard from nearly 100 readers who had their Nectar balances emptied ahead of Christmas.

Now we can reveal that 12million points worth more than £60,000 have been stolen from our readers in the past year, ranging from small amounts worth £2.50 up to £1,000.

Christmas shop ruined by thieves

Rachel celebrated her birthday on 17 December but it took two days for her to realise that the criminals had done their own celebratory shop.

She received three emails that showed nearly 10,000 points had been spent in Stanmore, nearly 200 miles from her home in Yorkshire. 

After she got in touch with Nectar to alert them of the theft, her card was swiftly blocked but it meant that she was left without any points just days before Christmas.

Her points were refunded on Christmas Eve but by that point, Rachel says, she had gone to see her sister and she was unlikely to receive the replacement Nectar card.

It meant that she could not use the £50 worth of points she had saved and instead opted to shop at Tesco.

Rachel says that while she won't stop shopping in Sainsbury's, the saga has caused unnecessary stress.

'My husband died in 2022, he'd not been well for quite a few years. I kind of ran the house and took a lot of the decisions and I ran the finances. 

'But now I'm on my own, it takes away my confidence,' she says. 'What worries me now is how my Nectar points were stolen.'

During December it appears criminals ramped up their spending in the run up to Christmas using ill-gotten Nectar numbers. 

Christine, who lives in Nottingham, said she discovered 500 points worth £2.50 had been spent in Birmingham just two days before Christmas. 

Three hours after she alerted Nectar, she discovered a further 39,500 points worth £197.50 had been spent in Taplow.

'Needless to say I was extremely upset, this was my Christmas shopping money,' she says.

Christine had been saving the points for 'well over a year' and had previously bought plenty of higher value items, including a vacuum cleaner with her points. 

'I do save them for that purpose to buy something I really want, and this year I had saved them for my Christmas shop.'

Nectar refunded Christine's points within a week, but it meant that she had to forego the £200 she had expected to save on her Christmas shop.

Readers lose THOUSANDS to criminals

Rachel and Christine represent just a number of Nectar customers who have had their points stolen, and not just at Christmas.

This is Money first wrote about the recent spate of Nectar point theft in January 2024, after a reader contacted us to say that they had had lost 74,000 points, worth £370, to scammers.

James* said his account showed two small transactions in Hackney, east London, and three larger ones in a petrol station in Enfield despite living in Gloucester, and not being in London that day.

It prompted hundreds more readers to write in with similar thefts, including some readers who were told to report it to the police, despite it not being a recordable crime.

Sainsbury's, which owns Nectar, has thankfully refunded points in most cases, although in some have suggested that they will not do so because the theft has happened in their local store.

Over the course of the year, our investigations have revealed worrying patterns that have made it easier for criminals to continue to steal points. 

As a result, our readers have lost a cumulative 12,532,655 Nectar points between January 2024 and the first week of January 2025, equivalent to £62,663.28.

Some 11.3million of those occurred between August 2024 and the first week of January 2025 according to our heaving inbox.

Many question the lack of security or authentication for Nectar cards, meaning criminals can theoretically duplicate a card's bar code.

Similarly, there is no cap on the amount of points that can be spent at any given time or authentication needed. 

It's understood that Nectar has systems in place to detect unusual activity, but this is usually after the fraud has occurred.

We also discovered evidence of secret groups trading Nectar customers' reward points. 

The Nectar Facebook group is also littered with customers who have had points stolen, and they are often the most liked comments on posts made by the loyalty scheme.

The most recent came from a customer who had their points stolen before Christmas and said Nectar took 'way too long' to refund. 

'It appears it is a lucrative business, stealing points and selling them openly on the internet, which shows how little security is applied to our accounts!' they added. 

We have asked Nectar multiple times to explain what is happening and whether the security system should be overhauled to better protect customers.

In response to our questions about customers who lost out ahead of Christmas, a spokesman said: 'The security of our customer accounts is our highest priority and we have a range of measures which detect, and in many cases prevent, fraud. 

'Nectar is one of the UK's biggest loyalty schemes, with over 23 million members, and the proportion of those impacted by fraud each year is small.

'For any customers who suspect they may have been a victim of fraud, we aim to put it right as soon as it's brought to our attention. 

'We told the two customer examples shared with us by This is Money how sorry we were for the inconvenience this caused them and their missing points were returned quickly, including on the same day on Christmas Eve in one case.'

Have you had your Nectar points stolen? Get in touch [email protected]