Square spamming non-customers in our name

[Lynn_TRU]

Our business received a phone call a few days ago from a man (“Phil”) wondering why he received an email from “us” (actually Square, but with our business name in the email). He was last in our shop a few years ago – long, long before we adopted Square as our POS – but the email indicated he made a purchase just last Saturday.

The email was sent from Square on our behalf; it says Phil didn’t claim his loyalty program points, and he should click a link in the email to claim them. In this day & age of fraud emails, he was very suspicious about clicking a link in an unsolicited email, & called us wondering what was going on.

Phil is definitely NOT in our customer database. So, the best theory I’ve been able to conjure: at some point Phil registered his email address with some Square-using business (again, not us), and at that time Square tied his credit card to his email address, in the Square database. Sometime later the card lapsed & was eventually issued to another person. That other person recently visited our shop & paid with the reissued card number, which Square incorrectly assumed was still Phil’s, and spammed Phil.

I really, really do not want Square harassing non-customers on our behalf – it makes us look really bad, and causes a lot of unnecessary churn… namely, the lengthy phone call with Phil, subsequent research into the issue, 2 chats with Square support, and now this post. Eventually I was told by Square support that it is impossible to turn off their spamming people: it’s part of the service, and only by eliminating our loyalty program can we stop it. Of course, I’m extremely disappointed to learn that.

So, 2 questions:

1. Is the support rep indeed correct in that there’s no way to stop them from sending unsolicited marketing email to non-customers using our name? Please please please tell me there is a way!
2. Is there a better scenario that explains why Phil received the email? So I can explain clearly to future callers, I want to be knowledgeable about what happens behind the scenes.

[JTPets · Accepted solution]

I completely understand your frustration with this situation. As a fellow Square user, I’ve also looked into how Square handles customer emails, loyalty programs, and data attribution. Based on what I know, here are some insights and potential solutions:

1. Why Did Phil Receive This Email?

From what you’ve described, the most likely explanation is exactly what you suspect: Square ties an email address to a credit card when a customer first interacts with a Square-using business and opts into loyalty or marketing communications. If that card was later reissued to someone else, but Square still has it linked to the original email address, it could result in emails being sent to the wrong person when the new cardholder shops at your store.

This isn't a case of Square "spamming" random people, but rather a misattribution issue caused by the way Square retains and reuses customer data for loyalty and marketing purposes. Unfortunately, the original cardholder (Phil) has no way of knowing that their email is still associated with a now-reassigned card.

2. Can You Stop Square from Sending These Emails?

From what I understand, Square’s Loyalty and automated marketing emails cannot be fully disabled unless you turn off the Loyalty program entirely. However, there are some things that might help:

• Unsubscribe Option: Square’s marketing emails should include an unsubscribe link at the bottom, which Phil can use to opt out. While this doesn't prevent other misattributed customers from getting emails, it would stop Phil from receiving further messages.
• Square Support Request: If Phil is open to it, he can contact Square Support directly to request that his email be fully unlinked from the system (although it’s unclear how quickly or effectively they process such requests).
• Customer Profile Updates: If you collect customer emails through other means (e.g., at checkout), you may want to manually review customer email addresses in your system to ensure they align with actual transactions.
  

  Final Thoughts

  This is a tricky situation because Square’s system is designed to be automatic, and while that’s helpful in many cases, it can cause problems when data is outdated or incorrect. I’d encourage you to keep pushing Square Support for more clarification and to see if they can improve how they handle these cases.

  If I learn of any additional workarounds, I’ll be sure to share them here!