LANSING, Mich — Nearly a month ago, 13 ON YOUR SIDE alerted the state Attorney General's office that scammers were accessing Meijer mPerks accounts. Now, charges have been filed.
Late Wednesday afternoon Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that her office is filing criminal charges in the case. Thursday morning, the AG announced that 22-year-old Nicholas Mui, of Grand Haven, is facing a slew of charges related to the scam.
Authorities accuse him of using customers' login credentials on the dark web that were likely obtained in previous data breaches to access users' mPerks accounts.
Mui sold those login credentials online, state investigators allege. Those who bought the mPerks logins used the points balance to fund their own purchases from Meijer, both online and in-person.
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Last month, 13 ON YOUR SIDE uncovered scammers had been getting into Meijer Customers' mPerks accounts. Once they did, they would access the mPerks points, which build up into cash rewards and can be redeemed at checkout.
Meijer said all verified theft victims have had their points reimbursed.
The thieves would use them to buy everything from gasoline to frozen food, even cologne.
In December, Meijer told 13 ON YOUR SIDE the breach affected about 0.5 percent of its customers.
While Meijer doesn't disclose how many total users are on their rewards program, the company said in January 2023 they have "millions of total mPerks users."
For context, 0.5 percent of 2 million is 10,000.
Meijer once again stressed the importance of using a unique password "that has never been used with Meijer or any other digital account."
Multiple others have posted on social media claiming similar situations.
Meijer shared this statement Thursday:
"We appreciate the efforts of the Michigan State Police and the Attorney General’s FORCE Team, in partnership with our Asset Protection team, to bring this individual to justice. This situation highlights the importance of changing passwords often and not using the same password for multiple platforms. We encourage any customer who believes they were a victim of this individual’s actions to contact Meijer customer care at 1-877-363-4537."
13 ON YOUR SIDE will be in Lansing tomorrow for the Attorney General's news conference and we will have updates on air and online.
To check if your points were used, check out the point history in the mPerks app. Also, search through in-store purchases to see if there are any purchases you did not make.
To report fraudulent activity to Meijer, call 1-877-363-4537.
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