Yes they can. Here’s my story of them being absolute expletives to me.
My account was hacked a few times, only after I’d used their app rather than the website. I believe they had a security issue with it but of course they blamed me, said I’d likely clicked a phishing email link.
The person had bought a series of £75 ‘Happy Birthday’ Amazon gift cards but they’d also bought a small selection of random items, books and stationery, that were similar to items i’d already purchased. It was almost as if they wanted me to ‘not notice’ the gift cards nestled in amongst the list if I reviewed my past orders. But it was actually when I received a book I hadn’t ordered to my home address that it alerted me to the hack. So I then checked my emails…
Anyway back to Amazon, I received a strange email from them saying they thought there might be unauthorised activity on my account. So why let all the purchases get through then?! I complained and asked for a refund, I was told my complaint was with a ‘special team’ and they would get back to me but every follow-up yealded nothing for months. During this time they WIPED any record of the unauthorised purchases from my account entirely so there was no record of them. At some point following that, they closed down my account without informing me and I was never able to log in again! I lost access to my purchase list and annoyingly my wish lists. Luckily I’d paid using a credit card and I got the money refunded via the bank.
I found this absolutely crazy. I held off using Amazon again for as long as I could as I was incredibly annoyed but in the end I signed up again using a different email address. They identified me via my credit card, cancelled my order and said I couldn’t use Amazon until I’d paid the amount the bank had contested with them. No apology for their shady behaviour.
I also know the hack wasnt my fault because it happened two more times following password resets. And only times when I’d opened the Amazon App. The first time, I’d changed my password as instructed and they managed to get in again and bizarrely ordered some supplements to my home address and that was it. By the third time, I’d removed my payment method and they’d put a Playstation in the basket.
On a completely separate occasion, someone managed to get into the account via a television somewhere in Europe and purchase a film! I’ve never experienced hacks anywhere else in my life except Amazon, so I think that says something about their security, and their attitude sucks.