On Tuesday afternoon, I received an email:
“Hello Amazon Customer,” it read. “Someone great recently purchased a gift from your baby registry! You can visit your Thank You List to easily keep track of all gifts purchased.”
Before my mom freaks out, I should clarify: I do not have a baby registry at Amazon or anywhere else, because I am not pregnant. Amazon, it appeared, had sent the email to me in error. Based on a late afternoon Twitter search, I am not the only person who received a puzzling message like this.
Those who got the email – and decided to talk about it on Twitter – reacted with a mix of amusement, fear and anger. Was it just a glitch? Or was it a phishing scheme, trying to trick Amazon customers into giving away their login credentials by getting them to click on a link in the weird email?
In a statement on Tuesday evening, an Amazon spokesperson said the email in question was erroneously sent due to “a technical glitch,” which “caused us to inadvertently send a gift alert email earlier today.” Amazon said it was in the process of contacting affected customers, and they “apologize for any confusion this may have caused.” (Amazon chief executive Jeffrey Bezos also owns The Washington Post.)