Another victim of Nectar card cloning

But when father-of-one Paul Brown looked at the balance on his Nectar card, he could not believe his eyes. Instead of having more than 50,000 points, worth around £250, the balance showed he actually owed 60p instead.

Mr Brown, aged 37, from Wolverhampton, discovered he had become the latest victim of a Nectar card 'cloning' scam, where criminals are able to steal Nectar points from unsuspecting members of the public.

Last month the Express & Star revealed how a man from Bewdley had Nectar points worth £111 stolen from his card, being spent in a branch of Homebase more than 100 miles from his home.

The Nectar scheme allows customers of a number of retailers, including Sainsbury's and BP, to collect points against their purchases, which can then be used to obtain a discount on their shopping.

Mr Brown, who had been saving the points in preparation for his second child on the way later this year, said he was shocked to discover all the points he had amassed had vanished.

"I couldn't believe it when we logged on the app to check our points balance," he said.

"I checked the recent transactions and it showed that 50,000 points had been spent in a single transaction at an un-named branch of Argos on August 26, a day on which both my wife and I were working all day."

Mr Brown contacted Nectar, and was told the matter could take 28 days to resolve, and it was not certain whether his points would be refunded.

"When we rang Nectar they were initially pretty unhelpful, saying that even if we did get our points back, we wouldn't be able to spend them for at least a month," he said.

"In the end it was resolved pretty quickly as it was clear that someone had fraudulently used our points, and we also got an extra £10 of points as a goodwill gesture."

He urged people to take care and check their accounts regularly for any discrepancies.

"We thought we were pretty security savvy when it comes to online activity, so can't believe how easily we were targeted," he added.

"I''m looking forward to getting an explanation from Nectar as to how it may have happened."

Nectar spokeswoman Ania Krwawicz said the company was aware of suspicious activity on a small number of Nectar accounts recently.

"As a result, we have made some changes to our systems and informed the police," she said.

"We would like to reassure our customers that we have a number of processes and procedures in place to constantly monitor for fraudulent activity and the security of our customers' Nectar accounts is our highest priority."

She said customers who believed they may have been the victims of fraud should contact the Nectar helpline on 0344 8110811.

"As a precautionary measure, and in terms of good practice, we would like to recommend that all our Nectar collectors change their password on Nectar.com on a regular basis," she added.