WHSmith Website Glitch Spams Private Customer Details
Web Services // Retailer
Due to an apparently flawed "contact us" form, anything users entered on the retailer’s help site erroneously was sent to hundreds of WHSmith customers.
A WHSmith statement blamed the incident on a "bug" in a system belonging to I-subscribe, a company that manages its magazine subscriptions.
"It is a bug not a data breach,” WHSmith said.
The details accidentally leaked include names, phone numbers, postal addresses and email addresses of people trying to contact WHSmith. One Twitter user said she had received "dozens" of emails with the subject "New Contact Message Submitted.”
It is unclear how many customers were affected by the whole mess.
In one tweet, someone told WHSmith to investigate the apparent breach after the individual got several mistaken emails.
"I am receiving emails that have been directed to the 'Contact US' page to my personal email from angry customers reporting the same thing," WHSmith customer Louise Maxwell wrote on Facebook.