CINCINNATI — Some Amazon customers across the country are looking at their accounts this month and wondering if they were hacked.
Amazon is showing some strange Hub Locker locations in customers' saved shipping addresses, along with their home address, mom and dad's house, and other favorite destinations.
And customers are wondering if some of their packages have been delivered somewhere else.
Amazon is not immune to being targeted by scams: Last Christmas, we spoke with one woman targeted by the Amazon "brushing scam," when a third-party seller sent her inexpensive items she did not order just to raise their ratings.
A couple of years earlier, we spoke with another man who was targeted by a shady third-party seller, who offer him low-priced electronics, but then shipped a box with nothing inside. That is called the "empty box scam."
Both of those are scams that Amazon is trying to crack down on.
Lockers showing up in preferred address lists
But Amazon Hub Lockers showing up in your address books is not a scam.
“It seemed like I had a hub listed for my five most recent orders that I sent stuff to," shopper Becky Luckett said. "I know enough about computers to be dangerous. So I thought it was something I did, but it was not.”
The Cincinnati woman was especially concerned because this time of year it’s so important that the gifts you ordered go to the destination where you intended them to go.
Luckett did not know if her account had been hacked, by someone trying to divert her deliveries.
No hacking, but still some mystery
But Amazon tells the hoax-busting site Snopes.com that there has been no hacking, saying these locker locations were inadvertently added as a shipping option to some customer accounts.
It appears they may have intended to give you more delivery options during the holiday season, as most of the locker locations tend to be nearby.
Amazon has issued us a statement saying:
“This isn’t a data security matter and our systems are secure. Amazon pickup locations were added to the list of possible shipping addresses of some customers in error. These are valid addresses of Amazon lockers and pickup locations, but we ask customers to please feel free to remove them if they observe this issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, and customers with questions about their account are welcome to contact customer service.”
So, the bottom line is that your account was not hacked, despite the fears, and some claims making the rounds on social media.
As always don’t waste your money.
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