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Amazon customer service representatives this weekend have been handling a wave of inquiries from customers who received suspicious and confusing email confirmations about gift card purchases they had not made.
Customers on social media said they were sent three consecutive emails, some Saturday night and others Sunday morning, thanking them for their purchases of Google Play, Mastercard and Hotels.com gift cards, despite never having bought them.
“An error in our system resulted in an order confirmation email being sent to customers who did not purchase a gift card. We are emailing these customers to inform them of the error and apologize for the inconvenience,” an Amazon spokesperson wrote in an email to CNBC.
Customers who received the false emails do not have to take any further action.
The faulty Amazon emails also contained a paragraph warning users against gift card scams: “There are a variety of scams in which fraudsters try to trick others into paying with gift cards from well-known brands. “
Part of one of the emails that was sent to a number of Amazon customers over the weekend, falsely confirming gift card purchases that had not been made.
Photo courtesy of Dan Mangan.
The messages left customers puzzled and alarmed that a hacker may have obtained access to their financial information and bought those gift cards.
“Thanks for the early AM heart attack Amazon. Who needs caffeine?” One Amazon customer service rep said that the company had received three phone calls about the email problem in succession on Sunday morning. I’m sorry to those customers who got this type of email. It caused them concern. Rest assured that all accounts are safe, and we will let them know to ignore the message in the interim,” said another customer representative on Sunday morning. A spokesperson for Amazon didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry for comment.
CNBC’s Dan Mangan also contributed reporting.