One of the companies behind the Scene entertainment rewards program says the loyalty points initiative has been the target of “coordinated fraudulent redemption activity” in certain Canadian markets.
The news comes after some customers attempted to redeem the points on Sunday.
“@SCENECard @CineplexMovies Hey! Is there currently something wrong with scene points? I went to use my points for a movie (I have 19,000) but my balance is showing as 0! Is there a known issue or did I just somehow lose all my points?” Tyson Dueck tweeted to Scene, noting on Monday that Cineplex was able to resolve the issue.
“@SCENECard I went to use my scene points yesterday at Rec Room and my account is magically not available and my points are gone Is there a known issue with the scene rewards or was I just super unlucky?” Twitter user Danielle Armstrong wrote in a tweet on Sunday.
Sarah Van Lange, executive director of communications for Cineplex, told Global News in a statement that the company has identified the “coordinated” activity in recent weeks.
“While all loyalty programs experience some level of fraud, Scene has put enhanced security measures in place to protect members from unauthorized redemption activity as well as to verify the identity of Scene members when points are being redeemed,” she wrote on Monday.
“We want to reassure members that their point balances are secure and that any unusual activity on some accounts is not related to any form of data loss.”
It’s unclear how many customers have been impacted by the fraud attempt. Van Lange said no personal information was compromised in the attempt.
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Van Lange said Scene takes security “extremely seriously” and encouraged customers to contact the program’s call centre at 1-866-586-2805 if there are any questions about their accounts.
Scene is run by Cineplex and Scotiabank, and points can be earned and redeemed at eight different restaurant chains.