From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

This is about cellphones but not specifically Android. If going
partially off-topic bothers you, like it seems to bother some people,
feel free to stop reading now.

Long story, short, the only safe thing to do if you save credit cards in
Amazon is to delete your app.

Or have 2-step authorization for the phone, but then have to put up for
it at home on the computer too. Because if you don't have that, just
opening the app enables a thief or someone who finds a lost phone (even
if it is in your back pocket) to buy whatever he wants and ship it
wherever he wants.

VLYDHTR
I should have noticed this years ago, but I have only used the Amazon
app to buy something once, when I was out of town. I may have browsed
with it more than once, but in the back of my head for a year, I've semi-realized that my credit cards are in Amazon. 3 of mine so I can
redeem the points they give** and one a friend I shop for sometimes
because she claims to be not smart enough to do so herself, even though
she watches videos on her cell phone. I never save userids or
passwords from banks I deal with, and afaik no other apps can spend
money from my phone. (When my phone was stolen in Greece 4 years ago,
afaict it was never used to buy anything, afaik there were no
repercussions to me, even though my wonderful credit card company took
34 hours to let me cancel the card. I tried over and over and both the
phone and the web said "The system is down" until 10 or 11PM Sunday
night, Eastern time.)

**(I think points are a stupid gimmick and a nuisance, but if I don't
spend them, I've wasted some of my money. It *was* a way for one credit
card to look better than the others, but now they all have points and
they all waste our time.)

So I asked google, How can I take the credit cards out of the phone but
keep them in the computer? And google said, Just do it and they will be
still be in the computer. So I removed 3 of the 4, and only then did I
have sense enough to look in the computer, and they were gone. So I
chatted with Amazon's bot and it got a human to call me on the phone.
And anything that applies to computer applies to the phone. I have
automatic login on the phone, because it was the default on the
computer.

And there is no way to save ccards but not show them on the phone (even
though I could learn the language they use in 12 hours and fix the code
in 4 hours so that the cards had to be typed in every time one bought
something from the phone.

It's funny. I've defended Amazon, said how great their software is, and
thought it many more times. When I didn't cancel my free Prime until 3
or 4 days into the next month, the computer without my asking noted that
I had not used it during that time and refunded the monthly fee. What
other company does that? Most would just act like, You paid, we
collected it, it's not our fault you didn't use it. And it's pretty
easy to get a human on the phone.

And although I've not learned the name of the case, to at least one
person I've defended them from the law suit that claimed, successfully,
that it was too hard to avoid signing up for Prime and too hard to
cancel it. I think they are both easy. I've cancelled my free Prime 6
times and once I paid for Prime for one month and cancelled it. Easy
Peezy. I read a bit more about it just now and still think the suit
was crap. "If you signed up for Amazon Prime between June 2019 and June
2025 and had trouble canceling, you may get $51." Wow. And get this,
they are sending the individual claim id and the PIN via postcard, so
anyhow who reads the postcard before you redeem your claim can redeem it
before you do!!

But this is a big hole that applies to millions of people. I don't lock
my phone and see no reason to and I'm not going to start now. So I
deleted the app and if I ever need it, I'll install it again. I won't be
doing any casual browsing like before, but that's okay.
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

micky wrote:

the only safe thing to do if you save credit cards in
Amazon is to delete your app.

Apart from the *other* safe thing to do, which is use a pin or biometric
to lock your phone when you link credit cards to any account ...

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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

In comp.mobile.android, on Sat, 25 Apr 2026 20:45:12 +0100, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

micky wrote:

the only safe thing to do if you save credit cards in
Amazon is to delete your app.

Apart from the *other* safe thing to do, which is use a pin or biometric
to lock your phone when you link credit cards to any account ...

I meant to include that. I had someone else's lockable phone for 2
days. Drove me crazy. YMMV
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

On 2026-04-25 21:45, Andy Burns wrote:

micky wrote:

the only safe thing to do if you save credit cards in
Amazon is to delete your app.

Apart from the *other* safe thing to do, which is use a pin or biometric
to lock your phone when you link credit cards to any account ...

Yes, absolutely.

I don't know if it is possible to make the Amazon app ask for a pin. I
use that app but never to do actual purchases, I prefer the computer. I
use it mostly to track when a delivery is arriving. When I make a
purchase on the computer, the Amazon web page requires me to enter the password again. I wonder what the phone app does in those circumstances,
but it should ask for some verification on any op that involves a cost.

I just looked and I did not see security settings.

Interestingly, the other day I tried a new tablet and it said the amazon
app was not compatible. Why, maybe because it is not a phone?
--
Cheers, Carlos.
ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:
[Lots and lots deleted.]

But this is a big hole that applies to millions of people. I don't lock
my phone and see no reason to and I'm not going to start now. So I
deleted the app and if I ever need it, I'll install it again. I won't be doing any casual browsing like before, but that's okay.

That's not Amazon's problem, but your problem, and apparently by
choice.

If you don't want to lock your phone, don't put any sensitive apps on
it. And while you're at it, turn off any syncing between devices in your web-browser(s).

FYI, if you use fingerprint unlock, unlocking you phone is hardly any
hassle. In order to use it, you have to touch it, right? So touch it in
the right spot, 'problem' solved. And most phones have facilities to not
need unlocking (for example on-body, at specific places, near trusted
devices, extended auto-lock time, etc.).
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

On 4/26/26 5:29 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:

micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:
[Lots and lots deleted.]

But this is a big hole that applies to millions of people. I don't lock
my phone and see no reason to and I'm not going to start now. So I
deleted the app and if I ever need it, I'll install it again. I won't be
doing any casual browsing like before, but that's okay.

That's not Amazon's problem, but your problem, and apparently by
choice.

If you don't want to lock your phone, don't put any sensitive apps on
it. And while you're at it, turn off any syncing between devices in your >web-browser(s).

FYI, if you use fingerprint unlock, unlocking you phone is hardly any
hassle. In order to use it, you have to touch it, right? So touch it in
the right spot, 'problem' solved.

I never had much luck when giving my phone the finger. Dunno if it was my
finger or the phone but it was quicker for me to just to use a pin. My pin
is 7 digits and is a pattern along one side of the pad, no need to even
memorize any numbers. I can enter it in about 2 seconds. I use that same
pin on all my toys (including this Amazon tablet I'm posting with) so it's
pretty automatic. Some might see a security flaw in that but if a toy or
toys disappear a Google password change should make them inert long before
the perp can decode my pattern...


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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

On 4/26/26 5:18 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:

I don't know if it is possible to make the Amazon app ask for a pin. I
use that app but never to do actual purchases,

I'm posting on an Amazon tablet. It of course comes with the Amazon Store
app. But what annoys me is that after I select an item the app requires my
Amazon password be re-entered to buy it. I originally had to go through the
PW+2FA routine to initialize this tablet to my account so why the password
requirement every time I buy something in the Amazon app?? Annoying.

I prefer the computer. I
use it mostly to track when a delivery is arriving. When I make a
purchase on the computer, the Amazon web page requires me to enter the >password again. I wonder what the phone app does in those circumstances,
but it should ask for some verification on any op that involves a cost.

So I showed Amazon. I put Google on this Amazon tablet and downloaded the
Chrome browser. Now I access my Amazon account through the Chrome browser.
After the initial PW/2FA sign-in the Amazon website is open every time I
access it in the browser no further PW required when I buy something. And
it works just as well as the app, perhaps better...

Interestingly, the other day I tried a new tablet and it said the amazon
app was not compatible. Why, maybe because it is not a phone?

I have some apps do that occasionally on my various Android toys and have
never figured out why.


--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

On 26 Apr 2026 12:29:43 GMT, Frank Slootweg wrote:

micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:
[Lots and lots deleted.]

But this is a big hole that applies to millions of people. I don't lock
my phone and see no reason to and I'm not going to start now. So I
deleted the app and if I ever need it, I'll install it again. I won't be doing any casual browsing like before, but that's okay.

That's not Amazon's problem, but your problem, and apparently by
choice.

LOL. Isn't that the case with pretty much every problem micky posts?
--
"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by
those who don't have it." --George Bernard Shaw
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