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Anyone know what the potential scam is here?
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Anyone know what the potential scam is here?
Anyone know what the potential scam is here?
11-07-2014 3:35 PM
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I received a couple of simultaneously-timed emails recently on a Hotmail account that I use occasionally.
One said welcome to Gmail! It then detailed a new Google Mail account on which it appeared my Hotmail address had been added!
Needless to say this was a Gmail account that was nothing to do with me, though its name had a relationship (of sorts) to the name of my Hotmail account.
The other email invited me to verify my (Hotmail) email address by clicking on a link
. Needless to say I didn't do this!
Both emails, after careful inspection did indeed appear to be genuinely from Google.
There was a link to "disavow" and disconnect my email address from the account, so I used that.
Could this just have been a mistake by someone setting up a new Gmail account and mistyping their alternate/backup email address?
Or was it an attempted scam? If so, how would it progress?
One said welcome to Gmail! It then detailed a new Google Mail account on which it appeared my Hotmail address had been added!

Needless to say this was a Gmail account that was nothing to do with me, though its name had a relationship (of sorts) to the name of my Hotmail account.
The other email invited me to verify my (Hotmail) email address by clicking on a link

Both emails, after careful inspection did indeed appear to be genuinely from Google.
There was a link to "disavow" and disconnect my email address from the account, so I used that.
Could this just have been a mistake by someone setting up a new Gmail account and mistyping their alternate/backup email address?
Or was it an attempted scam? If so, how would it progress?
4 REPLIES
Re: Anyone know what the potential scam is here?
Re: Anyone know what the potential scam is here?
11-07-2014 3:46 PM
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I think I had one like that a couple of weeks ago.... I assumed it was dodgy, and did not do anything about it.... since then no repeat....
Wonder if it something Google are "trying it on" with their " Google Plus"... whatever that is supposed to do... perhaps it is trying to get more people to use google mail rather than alternative( normal ) email client... so they can monitor and attack them with "advertising" ...
Just had another one for 2014 candidate ! ! ...
Wonder if it something Google are "trying it on" with their " Google Plus"... whatever that is supposed to do... perhaps it is trying to get more people to use google mail rather than alternative( normal ) email client... so they can monitor and attack them with "advertising" ...
Just had another one for 2014 candidate ! ! ...
Re: Anyone know what the potential scam is here?
Re: Anyone know what the potential scam is here?
11-07-2014 3:50 PM
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if it was a scam then there is a chance it was only something attempting to verify that was a live account
ive had some dubious "activate your account" emails in the past but there almost always apple id ones (I don't have anything apple) and invariably the source data shows that despite the hover check of the link displaying the real end point its a script that takes you somewhere that just looks genuine ...
without the ability to read those details though it would be difficult to even make a guess as to if it was a scam or a genuine mistake (if your using the web version of Hotmail you should be able to right click on the email without opening it and select view source in case your unaware of that mechanic)
most of the time the info in the box
p.s. that quote was from message source about a topic reply for anyone wondering
ive had some dubious "activate your account" emails in the past but there almost always apple id ones (I don't have anything apple) and invariably the source data shows that despite the hover check of the link displaying the real end point its a script that takes you somewhere that just looks genuine ...
without the ability to read those details though it would be difficult to even make a guess as to if it was a scam or a genuine mistake (if your using the web version of Hotmail you should be able to right click on the email without opening it and select view source in case your unaware of that mechanic)
most of the time the info in the box
would tell you if it was a genuine email or a rerouted one and anything that gets spammed tends to have a strange start
Quote Received: from www-data by community04.servers.plus.net with local (Exim 4.72)
(envelope-from <www-data@community04.servers.plus.net>)
id 1X5boM-0000lY-Tz
p.s. that quote was from message source about a topic reply for anyone wondering
just because your paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
Re: Anyone know what the potential scam is here?
Re: Anyone know what the potential scam is here?
11-07-2014 4:00 PM
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Yes I regularly get fake verification emails about Apple ID's that are nothing to do with me.
I checked the headers and links in these emails and they came from Google servers and linked to Google servers, no fakery.
I checked the headers and links in these emails and they came from Google servers and linked to Google servers, no fakery.
Re: Anyone know what the potential scam is here?
Re: Anyone know what the potential scam is here?
11-07-2014 4:02 PM
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then its likely to be down to an innocuous typo
just because your paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
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