A scammer stole a woman's Giant Eagle rewards perks. She has a warning for everyone
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A scammer stole a local woman's Giant Eagle rewards perks.
She is now advocating for an added layer of security, saying anyone could be at risk.
"I was checking my email, and I saw a survey come in from Giant Eagle. It says, "Thank you for visiting the Calcutta GetGo on March 6 at 3:32 p.m.," Margaret Smith Isadore said.
Isadore thought to herself that could not be right. She said during that time, she was in line at her grandson's school to pick him up.
"We are nowhere near Calcutta, Ohio," she said. "I don't even know where Calcutta is."
She now knows that someone accessed her Giant Eagle myPerks twice. Isadore and her husband, Ray, use separate cards, but he was not in Ohio either during that time. And he's the one that usually racks up the myPerks when he buys gift cards.
Giant Eagle's customer service restored her points immediately once she called with a quick solution.
"Our answer from customer service was change the phone number," Margaret said.
KDKA-TV's Meghan Schiller: "What happens if it happens again? You're going to run out of phone numbers."
Margaret: "Exactly. And I thought, honestly, my husband buys a lot of gift cards. So, he religiously checks those points. I never looked it up until this happened to me. So, how many other people has this happened to? And I would not have known if they had not sent me the survey."
KDKA-TV reached out to Giant Eagle to ask how widespread this problem is. Giant Eagle did not comment on that but released a statement saying, in part:
"We appreciate the value Giant Eagle customers realize through our myPerks loyalty program and understand the importance of protecting the perks in one's account. We are investigating this specific incident and are actively reviewing all safeguards in place to ensure we best protect our customers' loyalty rewards."
Since it doesn't take much to steal someone's hard-spent perks, the Isadores want the grocery chain to consider an added layer of security, possibly an additional security pin for people who don't have the card in hand.
"There has to be some kind of identifier for people to do that," Margaret said. "I have a feeling that this is not just me and my husband."
She wants people to sign up for the emails and check their activity in the app.
