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Email Comments, Questions and Miscellaneous Share your opinion of the email service you're using. Post general email questions and discussions that don't fit elsewhere. |
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9 Apr 2017, 06:52 AM | #1 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 2
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Misuse of gmail identity
A company called BudgetAir.co.uk have sent 10 emails to me in 24 hours including several airline booking confirmations and etickets. All of these emails were for other people. I have reported this to BudgetAir but they have not not anything about this. Just wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences and if they have any advice on how to deal with this situation?
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9 Apr 2017, 07:11 AM | #2 |
Intergalactic Postmaster
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Irving, Texas
Posts: 8,929
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Welcome to the EMD Forums!
This is probably an error by the person or service booking the tickets, combined with poor business practices of the booking company. They entered the wrong email address (yours) in their system without proper confirmation. Unfortunately, some services do not use proper security procedures when a client sets up an account with an email address. They should use a process such as:
Similar things have happened to me. I received private messages from a university in another country about new student signup for health services and other personal items. I tried multiple times to point out the error to the university but all of my messages were ignored. I certainly would never use a service or university which doesn't verify the identity of new email signups and then sends them personal messages or items of value. Bill |
9 Apr 2017, 02:55 PM | #3 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 2
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Thanks Bill - that was very helpful
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9 Apr 2017, 10:14 PM | #4 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: EU
Posts: 4,945
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A very principled idea, but how do you identify "offending" services before they act in the manner you describe?
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9 Apr 2017, 11:45 PM | #5 |
Master of the @
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: USA
Posts: 1,749
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Also, this is a classic phishing technique! Never click on a link in such a message--instead go straight to the website and look up your information or account, etc. Don't click on the email link to respond to the email unless you are certain you know who it is from. I have found that 99+% of the time if I get an email from any sort of vendor that I wasn't expecting an email from it is a phishing attempt.
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15 Apr 2017, 05:35 AM | #6 |
Cornerstone of the Community
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Florida
Posts: 545
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I agree. Unless you've analyzed the headers and determined that the message actually originated from the servers of the air travel company, it's probably a scam. They expect you to panic and try to "cancel" the charge, revealing personal financial information (like credit card info) in the process. Not a lot different from the one I got a few days ago that looked exactly like an Amazon Shipping Confirmation, for a $1150 order, except that it did not give the item name for even the first item, and the "track your package" link did not go to Amazon or any known shipper.
Edward |