Amazon Data Leak Exposes Email Addresses Right Before Black Friday
Written by Lawrence Abrams / Courtesy of Hongkiat
If you received a strange email from Amazon stating that they may have disclosed your email address due to a technical error, you are not alone. It seems a web site issue caused some user’s email addresses to be disclosed and has since been resolved.
Some Amazon users are reporting that they have received an email with the subject “Important Information about your Amazon.com Account” that states that the Amazon web site disclosed their email address due to a technical error. They email goes on to say that the issue has been fixed.
The entire text of this email is:
Hello,
We’re contacting you to let you know that our website inadvertently disclosed your email address due to a technical error. The issue has been fixed. This is not a result of anything you have done, and there is no need for you to change your password or take any other action.
Sincerely, Customer Service http://Amazon.com
Amazon is not being forthcoming with the details related to this “technical error”. When we contacted their press office, we were told by an Amazon representative that the issue has been fixed and user’s have been informed. Pretty much what we already knew from the email.
“We have fixed the issue and informed customers who may have been impacted.”
Amazon’s help chat wasn’t that helpful either.
“I really do apologize that you receive an email regarding that,” an Amazon support representative told BleepingComputer. “There’s nothing to worry, we will fixed this issue as soon as possible so it wont happen again.”
The lack of information is concerning as users should know how and when their personal data was mishandled. Furthermore, this comes right before the biggest shopping season of the year, Black Friday, and phishers love nothing more than being able to get their hands on people’s email addresses.
With the lack of information being released, there is unfortunately no way to know who saw and for how long these email addresses were exposed.
Finally, what’s up with the http:// link in the email?
Read the original article over at Hongkiat.com.
