Dare Iced Coffee sent out emails to customers who entered its “Daremergency” promotion yesterday with a message of congratulations and information about their winnings.

The promotion, which asked customers to scan a QR code and enter details to win a share in a $1 million prize, erroneously alerted entrants they had won – but hours later, Dare sent a follow-up email with a correction.

“We are writing to provide an important update regarding a communication you received this morning about being notified as a provisional weekly winner in our promotion,” Dare’s email with the subject line “Daremergency Correction” read.

“We regret to inform you that a technical error occurred and, upon review, we can confirm that you were not a valid winner in this instance.

“Accordingly, please disregard the communication from this morning that was sent in error.”

Dare apologised to the non-winners and acknowledged it was a “disappointing” outcome.

The original email told winners they had won the weekly draw and would be given a $1000 prepaid Mastercard.

Some customers who were sent the correction email took to social media to express their disappointment.

Dare’s parent company Bega apologised for the error in a statement to 9news.com.au.

“We sincerely apologise for a technical error that resulted in incorrect provisional winner notifications being sent to some participants in our recent Daremergency promotion,” a spokesperson said.

“This issue was due to an unexpected system malfunction (with a third-party provider) and we are actively investigating the cause to ensure it does not happen again.

“We understand this may have led to confusion and disappointment, and we deeply regret the inconvenience caused.

“We were made aware of the error on Wednesday 12 February and affected participants were contacted immediately to clarify the situation.”

Dare said the emails were sent to a “very small portion” of customers and confirmed the company plans to send the impacted people a $50 e-gift card.

”While no system is ever completely immune to human or technical errors, we’re confident that the measures we’ve implemented will ensure that winners will be notified correctly moving forward and prevent a repeat of this issue,” the spokesperson added.

“Transparency and fairness are our top priorities, and we remain committed to ensuring all of our promotions are run with integrity.”

Queensland couple Mark and Lynne Lillington were told they’d won a $1000 cash prize, however never received their full earnings after being told there had been an issue with the brand’s website.

The pensioners were one of hundreds of people who were mistakenly told they were “provisional winners”.