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  • From the Tesco Clubcard Wikipedia page:

    ''In January 1995, Frank Riolfo, a former member of the Royal Army Medical Corps, attempted to blackmail Tesco, forcing the introduction of a previously trialed discount card. Threatening to inject AIDS-infected blood into stock, Riolfo demanded the company make loyalty cards available to customers.

    The cards, he specified, were to contain magnetic strips allowing them to secretly function as ATM cash withdrawal cards. Coded copies of the PIN code were published under his instruction in National newspapers.

    Clubcard was subsequently launched nationally with a Direct Marketing campaign by Evans Hunt Scott advertising agency.

    Hundreds of customers, including Riolfo's wife, signed up to the scheme and collected a card. Riolfo and his wife then toured the country withdrawing cash until they were eventually caught on 22 April 1995.

    Frank Riolfo pleaded guilty and was jailed for six years, after appeal. Little coverage of these events remains online. The loyalty card scheme was not discontinued.''

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