Speakers Corner
Ontario woman warns others after PC Optimum card gets hacked
Posted Aug 10, 2026 9:04 am.
Last Updated Aug 10, 2026 10:03 am.
It took one woman nearly a year to rack up hundreds of thousands of PC Optimum points. It took thieves a matter of minutes to steal them all.
Mandy Campbell, who lives in Kincardine, Ont., reached out to us after making the discovery in late July.
“The person behind this had used the barcode that’s on the PC app itself to steal my points,” she said.
According to her app, the points were cashed in at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Oakville with timestamps. The suspect cashed in to get more than $1,000 worth of products.
“I was nowhere near Oakville at the time these points were redeemed. That particular store is about three hours drive away from me,” she said.
Campbell called Loblaw immediately to report the fraudulent activity. Loblaw had been investigating the case but when she reached out to us had yet to get the points returned.
“I’m like that’s insane, I clearly proved this was fraud so I don’t understand why it’s taking this long,” she said. “I was just worried that it was going to take months and months of calls and emails to get my points back.”
Hours after Speakers Corner reached out to Loblaw, her points were back in her account.
While relieved, Campbell says it still doesn’t answer how the points were stolen. She’s concerned it was due to a data breach that was announced by Loblaw in March. According to the alert, a criminal third party accessed a non-critical part of its IT network, exposing basic customer contact data like names, phone numbers, and email addresses.
“Well there you go,” Campbell said. “That’s all you need for any hacker to reset your passwords and get into whatever they want.”
A spokesperson for Loblaw, however, says the data breach played no role in Campbell’s case.
“Our review of this case determined that the unauthorized points redemption was linked to unauthorized access to the customer’s personal email account and not due to any data breach,” the statement reads.
They went on to say the March incident indicated that passwords, health information, and payment card information were not compromised, and PC Financial systems were not impacted.
After falling victim, Campbell is now taking additional steps, she wishes she had done earlier to protect her account.
The PC Optimum app, allows you to change your settings — you can lock the redeem option until you’re actually in store and ready to redeem. Similar to locking your credit card — but you’ll still earn points.
“So I would urge anyone to make sure that your redemption is toggled off in settings until you’re at the cash register and ready to redeem them yourself because it’s honestly not worth the hassle.”
Campbell also filed a police report as the theft was more than $1,000. Police are still investigating.
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