Woolworths has confirmed it has paused the Everyday Pay QR checkout experience for participating customer loyalty program members after a small number of customers were hit by what's been labelled a highly sophisticated phishing scam.

In a statement to Mi3, an Everyday Rewards spokesperson confirmed a "small number of Everyday Pay users" had been "personally targeted by a sophisticated external phishing scam". This had led to them providing their details to scammers.

"Out of caution we proactively turned off the Everyday Pay QR payment option in-store while we investigated," the company stated. "We want to reassure our members that our Everyday Pay systems and data remain secure and have not been compromised.

"While it was temporarily unavailable last week, the Everyday Pay wallet continues to be available for gift cards - which can be purchased, stored and used for in-store and online purchases.

"We are now taking this opportunity to review and simplify our in-store Everyday Pay checkout experience, and as a result, QR payments may remain unavailable while we work through this process.

"We apologise to our Everyday Pay users for this inconvenience.

"Scams are prevalent across Australia and we encourage all members to continue to be vigilant of unsolicited text messages or emails that they receive."

Mi3 understands the percentage of people who had chosen to upload a credit card in their mobile wallet then use that directly via the Everyday payments system at the checkout is well under 10 per cent of members. Last year, Woolworths reported 14.5 million members in the program.

As a consequence of the decision to turn off the QR payment option, a spokesperson said the Woolworths team is now looking to take the opportunity to make some CX improvements to the platform while it's offline. At this stage, there's no confirmation of when the payment option will be turned back on.