Michigan man sentenced to 15-20 years in mPerks scheme
(CBS DETROIT) - A Michigan man has been sentenced to 15 to 20 years in prison for the theft and sale of account information tied to Meijer mPerks accounts.
Nicholas Mui, 22, of Grand Haven, pleaded guilty in July to one count of conducting a criminal enterprise and forfeited his computer tower and about $611,000 in cash and frozen cryptocurrency.
mPerks is a loyalty program at the Meijer grocery store chain. Customers can choose to sign up for the accounts, which are managed by Meijer. People who participate in the loyalty program can accrue points for store credit by shopping at the store.
Members of the loyalty program had their information compromised, credentials sold online and points stolen.
"Mui obtained login credentials from a separate data breach, cross referenced those credentials for access success with the mPerks infrastructure, and then sold those login credentials on the internet for the wrongful use of buyers," according to the attorney general's office. "The purchasers of the login credentials then used the points balance to fund their own purchases from Meijer, with incidents documented for both online and in-store purchases."
The grocer learned of the scheme after receiving complaints about the issues with their points "vanishing" in April and May 2023.
An investigation was carried out, and Mui had been arrested and arraigned in January.
"The tireless efforts of the FORCE team, Michigan State Police, and Meijer have not only secured a significant sentence and restitution but may have also prevented further harm to businesses and consumers across our state," Nessel said. "My FORCE Team remains dedicated to working with retail partners to hold accountable those who commit organized retail crimes and creating an overall safer shopping experience."
Meijer reinstated the previous points balance for all affected customers, which caused the grocer to be at a loss exceeding $1,000,000.