Reports of random emails from Burger King flooded social media last night and this morning, and multiple staff here at How-To Geek received the message as well. The email is a receipt for an order, except in (seemingly) every case, the order number is blank and there is no information about the pickup location or what was ordered. There are no reports of payment card theft associated with the email — it seems like someone just sent out the blank email template.
What makes the situation stranger is that the email was sent to many people who had never provided their email addresses to Burger King in the first place — including myself. The company may have previously purchased collections of addresses for marketing purposes (a common business practice), and then sent the blank email to many people in the database.
Burger King is owned by Restaurant Brands International, which also manages Tim Hortons, Popeyes, and Firehouse Subs. Canada recently completed an investigation into Tim Hortons, which found that the restaurant’s app was “amassing a huge amount of highly sensitive information about its customers” through its mobile app. Tim Hortons is currently attempting to settle multiple class-action lawsuits by offering affected customers “a free hot beverage and baked good” instead of financial payouts.
How-To Geek has reached out to Burger King for comment, and we will update this article when (or if) we get a response.
