PLEASE READ - Important Issue Regarding Amazon Accounts

This is an issue regarding Amazon accounts that I'd like to make people aware of. I'm not sure where else this fits so please mods, feel free to move it if needed.

Today my mother received an e-mail from amazon saying part of her order had shipped. However, she had not placed any orders. She asked me to go through her e-mails and there were a series of three extremely realistic e-mails from amazon; two yesterday, one saying an order had been placed and the other saying she had availed of mp3 credits and today's e-mail saying part of her order has been shipped. The e-mails had her name right but used a UK address. A tracking number was included so I checked this on Royal Mail and it was legitimate. I also checked the UK address included in the e-mail on Google maps and it was was a real address.

I went back through the e-mails and noticed that even though my mother had received these e-mails from amazon, the address linked to account appeared to be very slightly different. I entered this email address on amazon and attempted to change the password, all the while thinking my mother's account had somehow been hacked. A password reset e-mail was sent to my mother's e-mail address and I was able to log onto the amazon account.

The amazon account I logged on to was real, the order details and address details matched those my mother received via e-mail, but this was NOT my mother's account. Amazon not only sent my mother e-mails intended for another customer, but allowed me to change the password details using an e-mail address which was not even associated with the account.

I need to make it clear here, it was not my intention to compromise someone else's account. I thought my mother's account had been hacked, instead, amazon sent me all the details I needed to hack into someone else's account, which I inadvertently did.

Once I realised what had happened, I immediately started a chat with amazon. I took screen shots of the entire chat if anyone's interested, I'd just need time to edit out sensitive info. When I explained the issue the agent told me, without any hesitation, that these e-mails weren't from amazon. I explained again that they clearly were and I was asked to post the content of the e-mails. When I did this, I was told that yes, in fact, the e-mails were from amazon. After some to and fro the agent assured me that the issue would be fixed and that the other customer had been contacted. I was told this is a known issue.

If this is a known issue, it's terrifying and I really want people to be aware of it. I was given complete access to another customer's amazon account and if I had been able to cover my tracks and so inclined, I could have used the cards attached to their account to place orders.

The issue, from what I can tell, is that amazon is sending e-mails intended for certain customers to customers with slightly different e-mail addresses.

I don't know if this will help anyone or whether it's simply a heads up, I just feel it's info that needs to be out there.