TORONTO -- Lisa Raby鈥檚 Friday night at the movies was ruined after noticing all 10,000 points she鈥檇 collected on Cineplex鈥檚 rewards program were suddenly gone.
鈥淭hat's a hefty bit of cash that helps me get out of the house without spending tons of money,鈥� she told CTVNews.ca, adding that she鈥檇 also been locked out of her Scene rewards account.
When she took to Twitter, she noticed she wasn鈥檛 alone -- dozens of people had reported losing thousands of points over the past week.
In a statement, Cineplex said it noticed 鈥渇raudulent鈥� activity within its loyalty rewards program. The company did not say how many users had been affected or how its system had been compromised.
鈥淚n recent weeks, (Scene) has identified some patterns of attempted fraudulent redemption activity in certain markets across Canada,鈥� Cineplex executive director of communications Sarah Van Lange told CTVNews.ca.
She said the company decided to freeze people out of their accounts to protect its customers. Van Lange added Cineplex would begin issuing new Scene card numbers and barcodes to some members beginning Saturday.
鈥淧oints balances will be automatically transferred with these new card numbers,鈥� she wrote.
For many users CTVNews.ca spoke to, they felt the company should have gotten out in front of the issue more proactively.
鈥淚 know they're overwhelmed, but I think Scene should be doing better with trying to get back to people,鈥� Raby said.
Tyson Dueck, who temporarily lost 19,000 points before getting them back on a new account earlier this week, agreed that the company should have done more.
He told CTVNews.ca that Cineplex 鈥渟hould have jumped on it immediately.鈥�
Jason Thomas said his account had been suspended twice in the past year and said that Scene still had a lot to answer for.
鈥淒id someone gain access to all of these accounts? If not, how was someone able to cause all this 鈥榰nusual activity鈥� on so many accounts that it necessitates Scene shutting down what sounds like everyone's accounts?鈥� he wrote.
鈥淪o. Many. Questions.鈥�
