Hackers Can Steal These?

June 19, 2017

I am a big credit card user. Initially this was for convenience as I did not want to carry around a bulky checkbook. I soon discovered, however, the benefits of credit card reward programs. Like many others, I now care deeply about accumulating points.

We have all probably had to deal with a call from the fraud department of our credit card company which notifies us of some unusual activity on our account. I seem to have had more than my fair share and I am glad that the credit card companies do a good job of protecting me. But recently something happened that had never occurred to me before. I had just received yet another replacement card and I checked online to make sure my stash of reward points had been transferred to the new card. Bear in mind this was no small issue. This was my main credit card, and it has a pretty good points program. Truth be known, I cannot remember the last time I actually spent any real money on an airline ticket. Reward points are my currency when I book travel for me and my family. I was expecting to see a nice balance in my account, but to my surprise the points total had fallen to almost zero.

For some reason the possible theft of my reward points seemed worse than someone using my credit card. I called the credit card company hoping to be told the low balance was caused by a simple delay in the points getting posted to the new card. The friendly rewards person told me that the credit card company had already dutifully transferred my balance, all 302 points. I knew that meant 100,000 points had gone missing. After more investigation at the credit card company end, I was told that a lot of points had been used on two dates. Given I did not recognize those dates I asked for more information. Thirty minutes later I was informed that my points had been redeemed for hotel stays in London, Paris and Vancouver, and all on those same two dates. My dogged customer service person went on to ask if that sounded familiar to me; a question which obviously overlooked the difficulty I would have in staying at multiple locations simultaneously. When I clarified that I had in fact been in Atlanta all that week, it became clear to us both that someone must have stolen the points at the time of the suspected credit card fraud. This event was apparently fairly uncommon, and the rewards team was not even sure how to track it down. Nevertheless they promised to credit back my points.

Google estimates there is $16 billion in value of unused points sitting unclaimed in customers’ accounts. If you have a lot of unused points on your various cards, I encourage you that take notice of their use. Credit card reward points are yet another consumer asset at risk.

Carl Gambrell