Two Aeroplan members lose $13,000 in points after getting hacked

Two Ontario residents told CTV News they were saving points for their dream vacations but found out they were hacked, losing points worth about $13,000.

Aeroplan is one of the most popular loyalty programs in Canada with about five million Canadians as active members.

If you’re one of those five million, you may want to check your account. Aeroplan points are being targeted by scammers hoping to convert them into gift cards.

Two Ontario residents told CTV News they were saving points for their dream vacations but found out they were hacked, losing point amounts valued at almost $13,000.

“I was totally shocked. I couldn’t believe it at first until I checked again and they were gone,” said Frances Parkin of Toronto.

Parkin told CTV News she was an English language teacher in France in the 1960s and was saving her points to take a trip back to Paris.

She said she had 417,500 Aeroplan points collected—worth about $8,000—which went missing.

“Someone had purchased a series of gift cards (with my points),” said Parkin, who also admitted she hadn’t checked her account for more than a year.

“It’s like seeing your bank account disappearing,” added John Guiler of Markham.

Guiler is also a longtime collector of Aeroplan points and has been collecting them for over 35 years.

Both Guiler and his wife love to travel and after he retired last year, they were planning to use their saved Aeroplan miles to take a dream vacation.

But, he said he was shocked when his 245,000 points—worth about $5,000—went missing.

“In January we started to look at trips and discovered we had missing points,” Guiler said.

He said his account had been hacked by someone who also bought gift cards, and he was told by Aeroplan the points would not be returned.

“They had refused to reinstate the points because they were stolen over a year ago. I never had any indication I had fraud on my account.”

When CTV News reached out to Aeroplan’s parent company, Air Canada, a spokesperson said in a statement, “We are sorry to hear about their experience, but unfortunately the length of time that has elapsed, with the customer only notifying us nearly two years after this issue arose, makes it impossible for us to investigate.”

“Moreover, while we have safeguards in place to protect accounts, under the terms that customers agree to when they enrol in Aeroplan, we state clearly that members should notify us ‘immediately’ of any concerns about their accounts. We also note that they are responsible for monitoring their account activity, as early detection is important for reinforcing security.”

Rewards Canada—a website that monitors loyalty offerings and provides information on loyalty programs—told CTV News to prevent theft, it’s better to use strong passwords, enable two-factor authentication, secure your email account, beware of phishing scams and monitor your account activity often.

“There has been a lot of security issues with accounts being hacked or taken over and people lose those points or miles,” said Patrick Sojka, founder of Rewards Canada.

“I recommend people check their loyalty balances at least a minimum of once a month or more. These points are just like cash, so treat it like cash.”

Both Guiler and Parkin are frustrated their hacked points are gone for good.

“To not have any possibility of redeeming them was shocking,” said Parkin.

Aeroplan points can be lost due to fraud, but you can also lose them due to “account inactivity.”

To keep your points from expiring you need to make at least one Aeroplan transaction every 18 months.