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7 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,July 14,2022 insidehalton.com Book your personalized tour! 289-644-2960 | chartwell.com Chartwell Oakville is an established retirement community with a strong local reputation and longstanding staff. Explore our attractive Uptown neighbourhood, vibrant atmosphere, recreational experiences, and some of the largest suites in the area. CHARTWELL OAKVILLE 180 Oak Park Boulevard, Oakville Social retirement living An Oakville couple is telling shoppers to keep an eye on their reward points after their PC Optimum ac- count was hacked, not once, but three times in the past year. Paula Schillaci, 62 and her husband Thomas Wa- karuk, 71, say trouble start- ed Sept. 24 when someone used points on their PC Op- timum account to pur- chase baby formula in Georgetown. "Every time that I go to the Superstore, I always check my balance. I checked and I was sup- posed to have like 250,000, and all of a sudden, I've got 10,000," said Schillaci. "We called, and PC Opti- mum investigated and re- funded us the points." When she asked why someone would hack her PC account to buy baby for- mula Schillaci said PC offi- cials told her people en- gaged in these activities will buy items that can be easily sold for a quick prof- it. Schillaci and Wakaruk said they followed the com- pany's advice and changed passwords associated with the account. Despite this action, Schillaci said their account was hacked again on Oct. 3, with someone using their points to purchase items at a store in Milton. Schillaci said once again PC Optimum investi- gated, refunded their points and advised Schilla- ci and Wakaruk change their passwords. Once again, the couple says they complied only to have their account hacked a third time on May 24. This time, Schillaci said, the points were re- deemed at a store in Que- bec. "We weren't even in Quebec at the time," said Schillaci. "This is criminal activi- ty, and this could be hap- pening to a lot of people." She says each time, the fraudsters used the PC Op- timum mobile app to ac- cess the couple's account and make their purchases. While Schillaci and Wa- karuk's points have since been refunded, Schillaci says she wants this to stop and fears for others who don't notice their points have been stolen. When asked what PC Optimum is doing to safe- guard their customers from this type of hacking, Loblaw Companies Limit- ed, which operates the PC Optimum loyalty program, said they take privacy and security very seriously. "We conducted a full in- vestigation into the matter and our customer support team has resolved the issue and awarded the missing points," said Loblaw Public Relations in an email state- ment. "With regard to the past matters with this account, we worked with the cus- tomer each time to rein- state any missing points and helped them with re- setting their email on the account, which could be the source of the latest is- sue." Halton Police Media Of- ficer Const. Steve Elms said Halton police encour- age victims of such inci- dents to contact police. "Although PC Optimum may report it to us as well, it does not hurt for the indi- vidual to contact police and file a report," he said. "It is also a good idea to contact the Canadian Anti- Fraud Centre to keep them apprised of the scams and frauds that are occurring in our area." While Lisanne Roy Beauchamp, acting call centre manager at the Ca- nadian Anti-Fraud Centre, said they are aware of this type of scam, she noted it is hard to say how wide- spread it may be, as it falls within the centre's larger categories of identity theft and identity fraud. Beauchamp said resi- dents should be wary of phishing scams in which fraudsters attempt to solic- it possible password infor- mation. She also recommended against storing all pass- words in one location, like a mobile device, in case that device is compro- mised. COUPLE RAISING ALARM AFTER PC OPTIMUM ACCOUNT HACKED REPEATEDLY DAVID LEA dlea@metroland.com CRIME "This is criminal activity, and this could be happening to a lot of people." - Paula Schillaci