Information security experts have warned Russians about bonus card fraud schemes.

Fraudsters several thousand times tried to illegally take advantage of discount bonuses of Russians in 2019.

Some attackers gained access to customers’ personal accounts, and then bought the products using bonuses, said Alexey Sizov, head of the anti-fraud department of the Application Security Systems Center at Jet Infosystems.

According to him, a fraudster can register a personal account on a card that was issued to another person. The victim will accumulate points without knowing about the existence of his profile, and the attacker will write off bonuses, said Sizov.

The expert added that this is mainly done by novice scammers. According to him, loyalty programs are poorly protected, unlike banking operations. He said that they are estimated at 50 billion rubles ($760 milliard) for the 30 largest retailers.

Alexey Fedorov, Chairman of the Business Russia Trade Committee, said that in 2019, the number of bonus and discount thefts “increased significantly.”

According to Fedorov, scammers often pay attention to gas stations. The expert noted that often points are stolen by employees of stores and call-cents who have access to information about loyalty programs. Especially for customers who do not use the accumulated points for a long time, said Fedorov.

The press service of the Russian trading network Magnit told that they also see a problem in fraud with bonus points. However, the damage from it is more image-based, as customers are disappointed in the loyalty program and lose confidence in it.

In addition, representatives of the largest retail chains in Russia said that they have already taken care of the problem of stealing discount points. To protect against such scams, sellers introduce two-factor identification: bonus debits must now be confirmed with a code from SMS, similar to banking operations.