Amazon unintentionally caused concern among its customers by sending out erroneous purchase confirmation emails for gift cards from Hotels.com, Google Play, and Mastercard.
Recipients received multiple emails from Amazon Prime, each suggesting a gift card purchase, despite no such transactions appearing in their Amazon Prime accounts. This unexpected surge in emails led to confusion and apprehension among customers, with many taking to social media platforms to express their worries.
One concerned customer shared their experience on Reddit, where others also reported receiving these emails. The subject lines of these emails resembled, “Important information about Hotels.com gift card order,” and they were sent from the address store-news@amazon.com. The emails stated, “Thank you for purchasing Hotels.com gift cards from Amazon.com,” but then proceeded to warn customers about common scam attempts involving gift cards, providing a link for more information on these scams.
Cybersecurity researcher Mike Grover shared screenshots of these emails on social media, further drawing attention to the issue. Despite some customers’ concerns that these emails might be phishing attempts, the email headers confirmed they were sent via Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) and passed authentication checks, verifying their legitimacy.
Amazon later acknowledged the error, stating that it was due to a glitch in their email system and assured customers that they would be contacted to resolve the issue and offer apologies for any inconvenience caused.
References:
