4 ms·

Oddly my wife is experiencing the same thing: some random person in Ireland keeps trying to sign up for things using her email address. The latest is Paypal wh

Oddly my wife is experiencing the same thing: some random person in Ireland keeps trying to sign up for things using her email address. The latest is Paypal who WON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT! (sorry, needed to have a dig at Paypal's awful support there). This person has tried to sign up for at least 6 things over the last year only to find that the registration confirmation emails never reach her. It's nuts!

bluedino 7y ago
This pisses me off as well. At first, it didn't bother me because they aren't getting the emails in the first place, so no big deal. But then get someone with your name that gets a support tech at your email host that's willing to reset the password for them, even worse bypassing any security they have, and then you're going to have a bad, bad day.
- mcv 7y ago
  All the fancy 2FA and questionable security questions aren't going to help if admins are going to bypass them based on a phone call. That is a massive, massive security hole. And with so many services potentially tied to your email address, this can amount to identity theft. Maybe the caller and the admin circumventing security for them should be getting some legal trouble for this.
AdmiralAsshat 7y ago
It's happened to me, repeatedly. This is the legacy of anyone who got a desirable gmail name from signing up in the early beta. What was most impressive was when I called Amazon to complain that someone opened an AWS account using my email addy fraudulently. They did several things to try to prove that I was the one lying (sent a confirmation email that I never clicked, sent a verification email which I was able to read back over the phone), and even confirmed from logs that the offending party bypassed the e-mail signup verification process by using a phone number rather than email address. They made some vague promise that they would open an investigation and close it if they deemed it fraudulent. They never did. My guess is that they are siding with random-fraudster-with-Indian-IP because he's the one that will (potentially) pay them money.
- kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
  The solution is to just request a password reset and own "your" account.
  - sadfklsjlkjwt 7y ago
    Bad idea. This could get called identity theft. Also you would really be on the hook for the bill!
    - kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
      The account was created under fraudulent pretenses. Amazon didn't perform any due diligence to confirm the email and already considers you the owner. Just take it over and shut it down.
      - funkymike 7y ago
        I had to resort to this for an Ebay account that someone opened with my email address. I finally got sick of them not fixing it so I used the email-based password reset feature to login, change the password, then closed the account.
    - ben509 7y ago
      Someone would have to figure out who to call an identity thief, who purchased the goods, who to send the bill collectors after, who to serve for a lawsuit, etc. All the company has is an email address and a bunch of other incorrect information.
      - sadfklsjlkjwt 7y ago
        And an IP address. And the previous contact with their support asking for the error to be resolved.
  - ben509 7y ago
    I've done this repeatedly. I like to put mildly insulting things in all the form fields before I lock out the account entirely.
mcv 7y ago
I've gotten email for a Spanish or Portuguese Netflix account registered to my email address. First time it happened, I complained a couple of times with no result, and finally set the account to English and then cancelled it. Second time it happened, I somehow managed to get someone at Netflix to look into it. I haven't had the problem since.
banana_giraffe 7y ago
I have a simple firstname.lastname@gmail.com as my gmail address, with my real name. Some lawyer with an amazingly active life, and is learning to be a pilot, and other things I've forgotten has the same not too common name as me, and has firstname.lastnamee@gmail.com as his email address. While at first cute, the number of times I've had to deal with other law firms who have sent me some incredibly sensitive document and then demanded I sign a document somehow proving I never read, nor will keep, the document they sent me by mistake is getting old. Or my favorite, when a plane leasing company sent me some very large bill, and when I tried to explain the confusion, they claimed it was my responsibility to find the right person, or pay the bill. People amaze me. (And it's super petty of me, but this lawyer's family sends invites to family events to me now. The first few times I responded trying to fix the situation. Then I tried going radio silent to these, but they got more and more incessant on a response, so now I just respond that I'm not interested in attending.)
- yummypaint 7y ago
  Send an email to the general council of the lawyer's firm explaining this. I gaurentee the problem will get fixed. Edit: having sensitive information sent to a personal gmail account is also a problem in itself and is probably directly and unambiguously prohibited by the firm. You should really let them know
- dkersten 7y ago
  > then demanded I sign a document somehow proving I never read, nor will keep, the document they sent me by mistake is getting old. Tell them: no problem, but first you have to pay the fee and send them an invoice for some large but not completely crazy amount. :)
- londons_explore 7y ago
  > this lawyer's family sends invites to family events to me now. Just show up to the party?
  - banana_giraffe 7y ago
    I considered that. They live too far away.
funkymike 7y ago
I had that problem with American Express. Someone put my email address when getting a credit card. Amex not only did not verify the email address before sending me his statements, but it also took 45 minutes of explaining to them on the phone that they need to take my email address off his account.

bluedino 7y ago

This pisses me off as well. At first, it didn't bother me because they aren't getting the emails in the first place, so no big deal. But then get someone with your name that gets a support tech at your email host that's willing to reset the password for them, even worse bypassing any security they have, and then you're going to have a bad, bad day.

mcv 7y ago
All the fancy 2FA and questionable security questions aren't going to help if admins are going to bypass them based on a phone call. That is a massive, massive security hole. And with so many services potentially tied to your email address, this can amount to identity theft. Maybe the caller and the admin circumventing security for them should be getting some legal trouble for this.

AdmiralAsshat 7y ago

It's happened to me, repeatedly. This is the legacy of anyone who got a desirable gmail name from signing up in the early beta. What was most impressive was when I called Amazon to complain that someone opened an AWS account using my email addy fraudulently. They did several things to try to prove that I was the one lying (sent a confirmation email that I never clicked, sent a verification email which I was able to read back over the phone), and even confirmed from logs that the offending party bypassed the e-mail signup verification process by using a phone number rather than email address. They made some vague promise that they would open an investigation and close it if they deemed it fraudulent. They never did. My guess is that they are siding with random-fraudster-with-Indian-IP because he's the one that will (potentially) pay them money.

kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
The solution is to just request a password reset and own "your" account.
- sadfklsjlkjwt 7y ago
  Bad idea. This could get called identity theft. Also you would really be on the hook for the bill!
  - kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
    The account was created under fraudulent pretenses. Amazon didn't perform any due diligence to confirm the email and already considers you the owner. Just take it over and shut it down.
    - funkymike 7y ago
      I had to resort to this for an Ebay account that someone opened with my email address. I finally got sick of them not fixing it so I used the email-based password reset feature to login, change the password, then closed the account.
  - ben509 7y ago
    Someone would have to figure out who to call an identity thief, who purchased the goods, who to send the bill collectors after, who to serve for a lawsuit, etc. All the company has is an email address and a bunch of other incorrect information.
    - sadfklsjlkjwt 7y ago
      And an IP address. And the previous contact with their support asking for the error to be resolved.
- ben509 7y ago
  I've done this repeatedly. I like to put mildly insulting things in all the form fields before I lock out the account entirely.

mcv 7y ago

I've gotten email for a Spanish or Portuguese Netflix account registered to my email address. First time it happened, I complained a couple of times with no result, and finally set the account to English and then cancelled it. Second time it happened, I somehow managed to get someone at Netflix to look into it. I haven't had the problem since.

banana_giraffe 7y ago

I have a simple firstname.lastname@gmail.com as my gmail address, with my real name. Some lawyer with an amazingly active life, and is learning to be a pilot, and other things I've forgotten has the same not too common name as me, and has firstname.lastnamee@gmail.com as his email address. While at first cute, the number of times I've had to deal with other law firms who have sent me some incredibly sensitive document and then demanded I sign a document somehow proving I never read, nor will keep, the document they sent me by mistake is getting old. Or my favorite, when a plane leasing company sent me some very large bill, and when I tried to explain the confusion, they claimed it was my responsibility to find the right person, or pay the bill. People amaze me. (And it's super petty of me, but this lawyer's family sends invites to family events to me now. The first few times I responded trying to fix the situation. Then I tried going radio silent to these, but they got more and more incessant on a response, so now I just respond that I'm not interested in attending.)

yummypaint 7y ago
Send an email to the general council of the lawyer's firm explaining this. I gaurentee the problem will get fixed. Edit: having sensitive information sent to a personal gmail account is also a problem in itself and is probably directly and unambiguously prohibited by the firm. You should really let them know
dkersten 7y ago
> then demanded I sign a document somehow proving I never read, nor will keep, the document they sent me by mistake is getting old. Tell them: no problem, but first you have to pay the fee and send them an invoice for some large but not completely crazy amount. :)
londons_explore 7y ago
> this lawyer's family sends invites to family events to me now. Just show up to the party?
- banana_giraffe 7y ago
  I considered that. They live too far away.

funkymike 7y ago

I had that problem with American Express. Someone put my email address when getting a credit card. Amex not only did not verify the email address before sending me his statements, but it also took 45 minutes of explaining to them on the phone that they need to take my email address off his account.