Weeks before the launch of Tesco's Clubcard loyalty scheme in February 1995, Italian-born Frank Riolfo worked out an ingenious but terrifying way to demand £250,000 from the supermarket.
In 1995, Italian-born criminal Frank Riolfo devised a scheme to blackmail Tesco by exploiting their new Clubcard loyalty scheme before its official launch. Riolfo demanded £250,000, using coded classified adverts in *The Times* newspaper to communicate with Tesco under the pseudonym 'St Mary Anne.' Tesco, unaware of the scheme's connection to the upcoming Clubcard rollout, issued special cards at a store in Dudley, which Riolfo used to withdraw £7,000 over 73 transactions. Police eventually caught Riolfo by placing ads in *The Times*, luring him to a Tesco store where he was arrested on CCTV. Riolfo was jailed for eight years and admitted to two counts of blackmail. The incident coincided with Tesco's launch of the Clubcard scheme, which was later rolled out nationwide.
