someone is using my email to create accounts

[pontifex]

It seems that someone is trying to use my email address to create accounts on different sites. First time it was for snapchat and today it is for indeed.com.

I do not use either of those sites at all nor did I sign up for them ever. I have received emails to click a link to confirm my registration for both sites now.

Anything I can do, besides cancel that email account?

 

[Brainonska511]

Someone did that to me the other day with a twitter and some other social media account. I just clicked the "I didn't create this account" link in the verification of e-mail address e-mails.

 

[Kaido]

It seems that someone is trying to use my email address to create accounts on different sites. First time it was for snapchat and today it is for indeed.com.

I do not use either of those sites at all nor did I sign up for them ever. I have received emails to click a link to confirm my registration for both sites now.

Anything I can do, besides cancel that email account?

Be careful, sometimes they are phishing emails with graphics stolen from the official sites.

What I would do if I were you is register your email directly on the sites in question (to avoid any potential phishing issues) & then change it to a random long password so that you never have to worry about it again. That way your account is registered & someone else can't get in (especially if you setup 2FA).

 

[nakedfrog]

Some idiot thinks he has the gmail address I use for "official" stuff that is my firstname.lastname, he has the same first name and last name. So I've canceled his Dick's Sporting Goods card a few times, canceled his Pandora account, etc. Any time he signs up for something and I get an email about it, I cancel whatever it is.

 

[CoPhotoGuy]

I go to the site and request to change my password and then change the password for the account to something like:

ajhklDhf87#98fjh(*#4th)2w34jh

Then I copy/paste it and don't save it anywhere. They can't use that account again. Or I'll cancel it. It hasn't happened to me in a while though, maybe he figured out that hey I don't really own that gmail account.

 

[Phoenix86]

Some idiot thinks he has the gmail address I use for "official" stuff that is my firstname.lastname, he has the same first name and last name. So I've canceled his Dick's Sporting Goods card a few times, canceled his Pandora account, etc. Any time he signs up for something and I get an email about it, I cancel whatever it is.

If they are chronic about it, do this. It's the only way to make them realize they don't own the e-mail.

I used to get a bunch of stuff for someone with FirstinitialLastname@gmail.com until I started acting on it. Finally got someone on a mailling list (local group) she signed up for to explain it to her.

If you ignore it, people, being stupid, won't catch on until forever.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Five or so years ago some Turkish "DJ HamburgerBoy" started appearing on the internet, and just last week I got a couple emails where he presumably tried using my gmail to register to some mixtape enthusiast site or something. Doesn't bother me tbh.

 

[Ichinisan]

Haven't read the replies, but you should obviously change your email password.

 

[Ichinisan]

Gmail.com has a "details" link at the bottom-right that shows you an IP address and approximate origin (country, state) for the last 10 times your account was accessed.

 

[Ichinisan]

Change your security questions and make sure no other recovery addresses were added to your email account. Enable 2-factor authentication after you change your password. Set up the Google Authenticator mobile app on your phone.

 

[Ichinisan]

I go to the site and request to change my password and then change the password for the account to something like:

ajhklDhf87#98fjh(*#4th)2w34jh

Then I copy/paste it and don't save it anywhere. They can't use that account again. Or I'll cancel it. It hasn't happened to me in a while though, maybe he figured out that hey I don't really own that gmail account.

That's a great password! I just set that password for my mrgullibleinga@gmail.com account!
i considered making that account with that password, but chose not to

 

[Newbian]

Some idiot thinks he has the gmail address I use for "official" stuff that is my firstname.lastname, he has the same first name and last name. So I've canceled his Dick's Sporting Goods card a few times, canceled his Pandora account, etc. Any time he signs up for something and I get an email about it, I cancel whatever it is.

Sounds to me like you could have had some free perks that you tossed away.

 

[ninaholic37]

When I don't want to give a real email I sometimes type in joe@hotmail.com. Don't know who owns the account but I bet they gets a lot of spam from people who don't want to use their real email for silly sites that ask for an email :awe:

 

[Belegost]

I was an early gmail beta tester, and got an email address that people seem to love signing up for things with.

It's a beautiful opportunity to troll.

Like the guy who signed up for a dating site (and sent out some messages to women before I checked my email) After changing his password to 30 random characters, I decided to be a nice guy and fill out his profile with the details of his fetish for transsexual diaper changing.

Or there was the dopey sounding college kid who signed up for a free blog site with my email. After his dippy initial post, I switched the password and helped him out in his pursuit of romance by detailing his creepy stalker fascination with an unnamed classmate who he was convinced could never care for him due to his micropenis.

Don't see these things as annoyances, see them as opportunities!

 

[ultimatebob]

I have a really short (7 character, first name last initial) @gmail.com address as well, and I'm always getting people using it to sign up for shit. I swear that I must have a logon to every file sharing site, online dating site, and frequent shopper card on the planet by now.

Anyway... Credit Karma now has an Identity theft checking portal, where they check to see if your e-mail address has been in a security breach. Apparently this address has been breached 28 separate times, mostly for sites that I've never used.

They also show the list of passwords that were captured in the breach. Out of the ten that they listed, only ONE of them was one that I actually used, and that was a single use throwaway account I never used for anything else

 

[Paladin3]

Sorry, but this necro was a disappointment. Nothing to really razz Ultimatebob over.