The World Opinion

Your Global Perspective

Amazon shoppers record false electronic mail confirmations for present playing cards they didn’t purchase

Wo Default Image

Sheldon Cooper | Lightrocket | Getty Pictures

Amazon customer support representatives this weekend were dealing with a wave of inquiries from shoppers who gained suspicious and complicated electronic mail confirmations about present card purchases that they had no longer made.

Shoppers on social media stated they have been despatched 3 consecutive emails, some Saturday evening and others Sunday morning, thanking them for his or her purchases of Google Play, Mastercard and Resorts.com present playing cards, in spite of by no means having purchased them.

An Amazon customer support consultant stated that the corporate is taking a look into the reason for the erroneous emails, however that accounts are protected and shoppers can forget about the messages.

“Pricey Amazon buyer,” one of the crucial emails learn. “Thanks for getting Google Play present playing cards from Amazon.com.”

The Amazon emails additionally contained a caution towards present card scams: “There are a number of scams wherein fraudsters attempt to trick others into paying with present playing cards from well known manufacturers.”

A part of one of the crucial emails that was once despatched to quite a lot of Amazon shoppers over the weekend, falsely confirming present card purchases that had no longer been made.

Picture courtesy of Dan Mangan.

The messages left shoppers perplexed and alarmed {that a} hacker could have acquired get entry to to their monetary knowledge and purchased the ones present playing cards.

“Thank you for the early AM middle assault Amazon. Who wishes caffeine?” one consumer wrote in a Fb publish after receiving the erroneous emails.

One Amazon customer support consultant on Sunday morning stated the corporate gained 3 calls in a row in regards to the electronic mail factor. The automatic customer support bot stated that there have been “longer than standard wait instances” within the telephone queue.

“To this point, we have no additional knowledge in regards to the message, however leisure confident that we’re operating on attending to the purpose,” stated any other customer support consultant. “I am truly sorry to all the ones shoppers who gained this sort of electronic mail and that this led to them alarm. However leisure confident that each and every account here’s protected and within the period in-between, we will be able to simply tell them to simply overlook the message.”

One Reddit consumer stated that an Amazon consultant defined the mishap as “poorly worded emails meant to warn shoppers about possible scams.”

A spokesperson for Amazon didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

— CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed reporting.