Google users receive worrying email about ‘new cards’ – and are told to ignore it

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Google has told users not to panic about a worrying email that suggested they might have been hacked.

This week, Google users were sent emails that appeared to indicate that a “new card” had been added to their Google account. That in turn seemed to indicate they had been hacked, given the message was sent to users who had not made any changes to their Google account.

The emails seemed to indicate that old and even expired payment methods had been re-added to accounts. In some cases, that meant that the addresses on cards were changed back to old ones.

Some also reported that cards they had already added and were using were shown as being newly added.

Affected users reported that the emails came repeatedly. But not all account holders were sent the message.

On Reddit, many reported that they had been so panicked by the message that they had changed passwords or deleted their cards from the app entirely.

Now Google says that the email notification was an error, and that it was sent because of a bug rather than a hack.

“To those who received an email notification,” Google wrote in a statement on its help site. “We are aware of an email notification that was sent by mistake about your card being added to your Google Account.

“Be assured there was no unauthorized access to your account. We apologize for the inconvenience.”