Amazon is launching today a new feature that will allow Prime service subscribers to send gifts to others using only an email or a phone number – a mailing address is not required.
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Gift donors must be members of Amazon Prime, the program is limited to the continental US and can currently be used only on mobile devices. And although Amazon has incorporated some guarantees – the donor never gets access to the recipient's mailing address – this sounds like a bad idea that could be used by many scammers and those who enjoy online harassment of others.
Here’s how the new feature works: The gift giver wants to surprise the recipient with a gift, but doesn’t know the recipient’s email. However, the giver has either the recipient’s email or the email. The gift recipient selects the gift in their Amazon mobile app, selects the “add gift receipt for easy returns” options during checkout, and will see the option to “let the recipient provide their address.” The giver then adds the recipient’s email or mobile .
At this point the donor's card is not charged, but the payment card is reserved for the purchase amount.
Next, the recipient receives a notification -via text message or email- that there is a gift from the donor waiting for them. Note that if the recipient does not have an Amazon account, at this point they can create one. The recipient must have an Amazon account to receive the gift, but only the donor needs to be a Prime member.
The recipient can click the notification from Amazon to reveal what the donor sent, then can decide whether to reject the gift, accept the gift but convert it into an Amazon gift card – the donor will not be notified – or simply accept the gift. If the recipient accepts the gift, the donor's payment card is charged.
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If the recipient completely ignores the gift notification, it expires within a few days and the donor gets his money back.
Also, there is no mechanism to opt out of the new service, if you want to. Amazon's stance is that if the recipient does not want the gift, they can simply reject it or ignore the notification. What could stop a troller/scammer from sending many gifts to a recipient just to annoy them via notifications? Technically nothing! All the recipient can do is notify Amazon about the incident and they will take action. Such behavior appears to violate Amazon community guidelines.
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This is a clever feature from Amazon that theoretically will increase service members since, as we told you above, you cannot accept a gift through this process without having an Amazon account. But the idea of receiving a gift from someone who does not have your address is problematic.
Amazon says it will roll out this capability in the coming weeks.
Source of information: theverge.com
