Monday, September 09, 2024
How? How do people not know their own email addresses?
I'm still receiving emails from strangers who for some reason or another, think their email address is “seanconner@gmail.com” (no, really, I get so many emails). This time, it's from someone who's TikTok account was accessed on a new device:
- From
- TikTok <noreply@account.tiktok.com>
- To
- seanconner@gmail.com
- Subject
- New device login detected
- Date
- Tue, 03 Sep 2024 04:56:22 +0000 (UTC)
Hi xs,
We’re writing to inform you that we detected a login to your account from a new device.
When: 09/03 00:56 EDT
Device: iPhone 11
Near: LouisianaIf this was you, you can ignore this message.
If this wasn’t you, open the TikTok app and go to “Settings and privacy” > “Security and login” > “Security alerts” and review unauthorized logins. If you’re unable to access your account, contact TikTok support.
You can also set up 2-step verification to secure your account by going to “Security and login” > “2-step verification”.
Learn more about 2-step verificationThis is an automatically generated email.
Replies to this email address aren’t monitored.This email was generated for xs
Privacy Policy
TikTok 5800 Bristol Pkwy, Culver City, CA 90230
It's not a phishing email as the raw message doesn't contain a link to “login” to TikTok, and the links that are in the email all point to the TikTok domain. So I'm at a loss. “xs” created a TikTok account, using my email address …
Why?
I don't know why this should surprise me any more, but it still does. I just … why? How? What's the angle here?
I can't even contact anyone, because TikTok send email from an address that isn't checked. I don't know who “xs” is, nor do I have any way to contact “xs” to inform them of their error.
Sigh.
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
This could maybe explain some of the emails I received, but not all of them
I received some responses to yesterday's post. The first was from Lionel Dricot who reported that he, too, has received emails for other Lionel Dricot's that lived near him. He also stated that it may be a bug in Gmail where one person can register “seanconner@gmail.com”; someone else could register “sean.conner@gmail.com” but when receiving emails, Gmail condenses the two addresses into one. That's possible, but I would suspect that would have been an issue caught early on. I've had my Gmail account for twenty years now [Has it been that long? —Sean] [Yes, it has. —Editor] [Shut up! —Sean]. and it's only been in the past few years that this has been an issue.
He also stated that people could just really be that bad with email addresses.
The second response has an explanation that is rather dire:
- From
- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
- To
- seanconner@gmail.com
- Subject
- People non knowing their email
- Date
- Tue, 10 Sep 2024 08:24:51 +0200
Hi, considering you've been shared on Hacker News, I'm afraid sooner or later some script kiddie will start abusing your address just to annoy you. I hope this will never happen ;) Thanks for sharing your blog, ave [sic] a nice day, White_Rabbit
That could explain maybe some of the email I get, which to me, I consider spam that Gmail hasn't filtered yet. But it doesn't explain emails sent to “sean.conner@gmail.com” that are obviously not a “Sean Conner,” and yet definitely contains private information. It also seems excessive to register a TikTok account or even an Instagram account.
And speaking of Tiktok, I finally have an account name associated with the TikTok account, so I have to wonder why “mommakmiller” decided to use my Gmail account? Perhaps they don't have an email account and need one to sign up for TikTok? Perhaps they didn't want to use their real email account? Perhaps they don't realize the danger in that?
