One woman spent almost a year earning hundreds of thousands of PC Optimum points, but thieves managed to swipe them in just minutes.
Mandy Campbell, from Kincardine, Ont., reached out to us after she made this shocking discovery in late July.
“The person behind this had used the barcode that’s on the PC app itself to steal my points,” she explained.
Her app showed that the points were redeemed at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Oakville with timestamps. The thief cashed in for over $1,000 worth of items.
“I was nowhere near Oakville when these points were used. That store is about three hours away from me,” she added.
Campbell immediately contacted Loblaw to report the fraudulent activity. Although Loblaw began investigating her case, they hadn’t returned her points by the time she reached out to us.
“I’m like that’s insane, I clearly proved this was fraud so I don’t understand why it’s taking this long,” she said. “I was just worried that it would take months and months of calls and emails to get my points back.”
A few hours after Speakers Corner contacted Loblaw, her points were restored to her account.
While relieved, Campbell still wants answers about how her points were stolen. She suspects it could be related to a data breach Loblaw announced in March. The alert stated that a criminal third party accessed a non-critical area of their IT network and exposed basic customer contact information like names, phone numbers, and email addresses.
“Well there you go,” Campbell remarked. “That’s all you need for any hacker to reset your passwords and get into whatever they want.”
A spokesperson for Loblaw insists that the data breach wasn’t connected to Campbell’s situation.
“Our review of this case determined that the unauthorized points redemption was linked to unauthorized access to the customer’s personal email account and not due to any data breach,” their statement read.
They also noted that passwords, health information, and payment card details were not compromised during the March incident and PC Financial systems remained unaffected.
Having fallen victim herself, Campbell is now taking extra measures she wishes she’d taken sooner to safeguard her account.
The PC Optimum app allows users to change settings – you can lock the redeem option until you’re actually in-store ready to use them. It works similarly to locking your credit card – but you’ll still earn points.
“So I would urge anyone to make sure that your redemption is toggled off in settings until you’re at the cash register and ready to redeem them yourself because it’s honestly not worth the hassle.”
Campbell also filed a police report since the theft exceeded $1,000. The police are still looking into it.
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A PC Optimum loyalty card is pictured in a photo illustration in Toronto, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Giordano Ciampini Keep it Factual
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