Grand Haven man pleads guilty to mPerks cyber theft

MICHIGAN (WNEM) - On Monday, July 15, a 22-year-old Grand Haven man pleaded guilty for stealing and selling account access information tied to Meijer mPerks accounts in 2023.

The announcement was made by Attorney General Dana Nessel on Tuesday, July 16.

Meijer’s mPerks program is a loyalty and rewards program where customers accumulate points by making purchases at the supercenter. Those points can be exchanged as cash-value towards purchases. Customers have their own mPerks accounts and they are managed by Meijer.

Nessel said the Grand Haven man, Nicholas Mui, obtained mPerks login credentials from a different data breach, cross referenced the credentials for access success with the mPerks infrastructure, and sold the credentials on the internet.

The buyers used the points balance to fund their own purchases from Meijer, Nessel said, adding incidents were documented for in-store and online purchases.

The company received consumer complaints stating points were vanishing from their accounts in April and May of 2023, Nessel said. Meijer contacted the Fraud Investigation Section of the Michigan State Police and a joint investigation into the matter was launched.

Mui was arrested and arraigned following the investigation, according to Nessel.

On Monday, he pleaded guilty to one count of conducting a criminal enterprise, Nessel said, adding with his plea he will give up his computer tower and $630,000 in frozen cryptocurrency and cash.

Nessel said Meijer reinstated the full previous balance of accumulated mPerks points to customers who were verified to be impacted. The company reported a loss of over $1 million.

Mui will be sentenced on Sept. 5 at 1:30 p.m. in the 17th Circuit Court in Kent County.

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