Sainsbury’s has rolled out a new ‘Spend Lock’ to its Nectar loyalty app to help protect shoppers points, after millions were stolen over the past year.

The security measure, which is currently being rolled out, will allow users to freeze their account and choose when to redeem their reward points, The Grocer reported.

With the feature turned on, an account holder will need to give manual permission to redeem the points. The lock can only be enabled or disabled by the account holder.

Last month, This is Money first reported that 12 million points, worth more than £60,000, had been stolen from shoppers by thieves that had accessed the Nectar accounts.

While Sainsbury’s has not detailed exactly how scammers have been able to access the data, over claims this could encourage the problem to escalate further, This is Money reported that thieves have been sharing thousands of anonymous Nectar account numbers through secure messaging apps.

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A Nectar spokeswoman said: “We’ve recently introduced a new spend lock feature to add an extra layer of security to our customer accounts, allowing customers to lock their points until they’re ready to spend them.

”Security is our highest priority and we have a range of measures which help to safeguard our customers’ points.”

Sainsbury’s first launched “Your Nectar Prices” on its website in 2023, allowing shoppers to get personalised prices online and in stores.

2024 marked Sainsbury’s second festive period with Nectar Prices, and CEO Simon Roberts confirmed that the supermarket saw “a record number of customers” using the loyalty scheme at Christmas.

Over the period, the retailer extended Nectar Prices to cover 9,000 products, as customers saved on average £26 on their big Christmas shop.