The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

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: Louisiana

If 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 verification

This 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.

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You have my permission to link freely to any entry here. Go ahead, I won't bite. I promise.

The dates are the permanent links to that day's entries (or entry, if there is only one entry). The titles are the permanent links to that entry only. The format for the links are simple: Start with the base link for this site: https://boston.conman.org/, then add the date you are interested in, say 2000/08/01, so that would make the final URL:

https://boston.conman.org/2000/08/01

You can also specify the entire month by leaving off the day portion. You can even select an arbitrary portion of time.

You may also note subtle shading of the links and that's intentional: the “closer” the link is (relative to the page) the “brighter” it appears. It's an experiment in using color shading to denote the distance a link is from here. If you don't notice it, don't worry; it's not all that important.

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