Not entirely sure how one can defraud the SYW program unless you are an associate stealing member account info.
All point accumulations come from transactions where the member spent money. Even if you factor in surprise points -- which the company has complete control over doling out -- the member has or is still spending money with us.
We have a couple people who are heavy users of points in our store. I've had to look up their accounts and see the points posting on their accounts. They are shopping with us, using coupons of course or other promotional offers like the extra points with a Sears Card. They are also using SYW promos, with Uber, rewards partners, other stores online.
There are multiple analysts who have called the accusation of fraud in the system complete hogwash. The system was set up so that a maximum discount on all the purchases averaged does not go into negative margin. You do know we sell a ton of things that have incredible margins. You can see this in the RMU as an associate at Kmart.
So for everyone who thinks we are giving away the company when a member gets a shocking discount on their purchase using points, think again. The member essentially paid for those points with prior purchases.