Boots Advantage Card hacked: Forter comments

Boots has suspended payments using loyalty points in shops and online after attempts to break into 150,000 customers' accounts using stolen passwords.  While Boots said none of its own systems were compromised, attackers had tried to access accounts using reused passwords from other sites.

Commenting on the situation, Michael Reitblat, CEO and Co-Founder of Forter (www.forter.com) the leader in e-commerce fraud prevention, says, “Recent high profile breaches demonstrate the growing underground market for loyalty program account data.  It is becoming increasingly apparent that loyalty program accounts are low hanging fruit for fraudsters, with loyalty program fraud rising 89% year-on-year.

“Reward points are a currency as valuable and untraceable as cash.  Fraudsters can sell the loyalty account’s PII, or directly access accounts to redeem valuable reward points and coupons for themselves,” continues Reitblat.

“Suspending loyalty accounts causes massive inconvenience to consumers who miss out on their benefits, however temporary.  Fraudulent activity in these accounts can negatively impact the customer experience, causing serious damage to brand reputation, and significant monetary losses to merchants.”

Until the issue is dealt with, Boots customers will not be able to use Boots Advantage Card points to pay for products.  This comes just days after a similar issue hit 600,000 Tesco Clubcard holders.