It was a short step from the fear of having one’s account hacked to the knowledge that it was a false alarm, yet the numerous users of Google Wallet they experienced moments of panic after being literally harassed by numerous emails referring to alleged unregistered cards associated with their profile.
It is clear that in such a situation, the thought that it was a computer scam it immediately crept into the minds of many users of the digital and private wallet dedicated to Android systems. But what exactly happened? The messages that have invaded the email inboxes of thousands and thousands of customers since October 2nd, especially in the United States, reported that new cards had been associated with the Google Wallet or Google Pay accounts of the users contacted. Information that does not correspond to the truth, which literally sparked panic online: to further confuse ideas, the fact that the cards indicated as newly added were in reality obsolete if not already expired, once associated with the same profile .
Bombarded by a series of emails with similar content, users of Google services stormed the internet to try to obtain clarifications or, better yet, some comforting news. Given the growing number of online frauds, many said they were certain that they had ended up in the crosshairs of some cybercriminal who had managed to violate the account and take possession of the credit card data associated with it.
The real reason for the problem, however, was simple mistake by the Mountain View giant, probably the last thing that the thousands of victims of the “bombardment” of fake communications would have ever expected to hear. Hit by the great outcry that had been created, the company issued an official note to reassure everyone: no profile had ever been violated, and the serial sending of e-mail messages was the result of an internal problem of an unknown nature. A malfunction of the communication management system, therefore, is sufficient to trigger panic.
Google advised to ignore suspicious emails related to
obsolete card associations, a consequence of this problem, and to never provide its sensitive data under any circumstances, assuring its users that it would immediately open an investigation to trace the origin of the bug.