Amazon Just Told Me to Log Into Someone Else's Account
It was not the answer I was expecting.
Update: Someone from Amazon got in touch and said they were working to solve the problem for me.
Last week, I was surprised when my inbox suddenly filled up with emails from Amazon, regarding apps that I'd downloaded to 'my' Kindle Fire.
There were many, many of these emails over the period of a few days.
A quick look back through the emails made it pretty clear what had happened: someone had purchased a Kindle Fire, and created an Amazon account using their own username, but using my email address. (And not even an address that I regularly use or give out - just an alias that I have set up to catch stray mails.)
In the week since the user set up their Kindle Fire, they've downloaded dozens and dozens of free apps, and yesterday made their first paid-for Amazon purchase with the new account. I get an email about each of these downloads or purchases.
I realize that I could do a password reset on the account (since that would send an email to me), so that I could log into the account. But that feels like it puts me on shaky ground. Particularly since the user's personal information - including name, address & payment information - will all be stored in there.
So, I got in touch with Amazon, to ask them to change or remove my email address from the account. Hopefully they'll have some way of getting in touch with the user as well. If they don't have the user's cell phone number, perhaps they could display an alert on the website or on the Kindle Fire to show that the user doesn't have a confirmed email address?
Here's the relatively short transcript of my conversation with Amazon:
He loved to help me!
So, there we have it. If I don't hear back from Amazon in the next day or two, I'm going to log into this person's account.
I would have access to all their data, and I'd be able to make purchases on their behalf. But I won't do that. I'll just shut down the account.
On the off chance you're reading this, and you're the owner of a new Kindle Fire to which you downloaded 'Kissing Test', 'Love Guru Scanner' and 'I Pregnant Quiz', please go and check your account details.
If you work for Amazon, either in the Kindle Fire or user accounts departments, please contact me on rob@ousbey.com, or using the email address that I shared in that chat.
If you work for law enforcement, please tell me if I'm about to commit a crime. But do go easy on me - I'm just a guy trying to clear out his inbox.