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I woke up this morning and randomly had been logged out of my Amazon account on my phone and PC. That seemed weird, but I just shrugged and went to log in. Upon doing so, the app AND the website wanted me to change my password with no reason given for requiring that. So I changed my password, logged in, and everything was fine for a couple hours. I was getting alerts for my orders again.
When I went to recheck my account (because some of my orders were supposed to be out for delivery), I had been entirely logged out again and AGAIN it tried to force me to make a new password.
I paused at that point because this all seemed weird, so I hopped over to Amazon's help page and got the number to call them. I talked to a rep who stated that I had made too many OTP password requests (because I kept getting logged out???), and that had locked my account for 12 hours, and that I should call back tomorrow to walk through getting logged in.
But then, a few hours later I received the following email, claiming to be from that very same rep, instructing me to make an all-new Amazon account (for no discernable reason?):
Hello,
Open the link: https://www.amazon.com/create_mase_account [sic]
Fill in the requested information. Make sure you use a new password that's at least eight characters and includes a capital letter and a number.
You'll receive an email with a passcode.
Enter the passcode in the Amazon screen to confirm it's you that created the account.
After you verify the account creation, you may be asked to add a mobile number. If your number is already in use on another Amazon account, you may receive an error. If you receive this error, add an alternative phone number. If an alternative number isn't an option, you'll need to log in to your other account to remove the associated phone number. This is to ensure your number is only used on one account. If you’re unable to access your other account to remove the number, contact us for further assistance.
Although these steps will enable you to create more than one account using the same email address, we recommend using only one email address (or mobile number) for each Amazon account.
None of this sat right with me, so I thought I might reach out to the community to see if anyone else has experienced this sort of thing, see if this is a legit practice done by Amazon, see if this is suspicious to anyone else, to ask for advice, etc.
Why would I keep getting logged out of my Amazon account? Why would it try to force me to make a new password every time I want to sign in? Why would a rep tell me one thing, then email me another? Am I being paranoid?
EDIT Sept 20, 2023:
I called back today. The rep told me to uninstall the app from my phone then reinstall it, as well as clear the cache and browser cookies on my PC browser.
The app issue continues trying to force me to make a new password every time I click log in, even if I JUST made a new password.
The PC browser allowed me into my account (I double checked to make sure I clicked "stay logged in"), but we will see if it kicks me out again.
Weird stuff.
EDIT ~Some time later:
It seems that the issue may have been related to the same Amazon account (mine) being used on multiple devices/apps (my phone & my husband's) at the same time with the extra security measures, like OTP. I solved it by removing the app from my husband's phone and he made a separate account which I linked to mine via the family sharing settings (so we could both use my prime benefits without paying 2 times over). Since we did that, we haven't had this issue.
This solution is speculation so take it with a grain of salt. It may or may not work for you. And if you aren't sharing your account at all, then I'm not sure what else may cause the problem. Best of luck everyone!
I changed my Amazon password but that doesn't seem to have changed Prime. I can't find a password anywhere.