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How to lose a customer with one email gaffe, Tuesday edition

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Dissent

An Account Executive at Square wanted to introduce herself to clients in her area, so she sent a friendly email to them today:

Hi there,

I wanted to reach out to let you know my team realigned territories and I will be your new point of contact moving forward.

I’d love to set up a call to introduce myself and learn more about your business.

Please let me know what day/time works best for you.

Thanks,
[Name redacted by DataBreaches.net]

Unfortunately, the account executive used the To: field instead of the BCC: field, thereby exposing 26 recipients’ email addresses to each other. Some of the email addresses incorporated the individuals’ names in part or whole.

One of the recipients immediately cancelled their account, responding:

Congratulations — You just leaked all of the account e-mail addresses in your territory. Please contact whoever is in charge of security and cancel my account immediately.

I want to see a response in the next two hours telling me that you are handling the problem and canceling my account. I will re-evaluate whether I will sign up again after I hear your explanation and how you plan to  prevent future lapses.

Thank you,
[Name redacted by DataBreaches.net]

Within hours, the hapless account executive replied:

Dear [Redacted],

I went ahead and deactivated your Square account. I sincerely apologize for my mistake and have notified my manager. I can assure you that we have been working to take the appropriate steps to resolve this issue.

I would be happy to jump on a call with a member of our security team to talk more about your concerns and how we can be of any additional help. If you would like to take this route please let me know a time that is good for you.

Once again, this is a mistake we are taking very seriously and I sincerely apologize.

Best Regards,

[name and phone number redacted by DataBreaches.net]

“How they can be of any additional help?” The customer doesn’t need additional help. THEY need a plan to keep customers’ information protected.

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