You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Whilst scrolling through my e-mail spam folder I came across a scam “ we’ve caught you watching porn pay up” e-mail. It’s obviously generic in content especially given that a: I don’t go on porn sites & b: even if I did I don’t have a webcam on my pc for them to catch me in action. What concerned me was that it had my real name as well as my email address. I can’t think of any scam emails which have done this. If they are addressed to anyone at all they are normally addressed to my email address. Is this something to be worried about in terms of the information they might have or does it just mean that somewhere there is a database which links my email to my name that the scammers have got access to.
The email address could come from anyone you've corresponded with who's had their email hacked - if they've saved you email address with your name in their contacts then the two will be linked that way.
However, also, how does your email address display when others receive emails from you? My name isn't part of my email address but my name rather than my email address displays in peoples inbox as the sender when other people receive email
Should have been clearer. They actually have my name in the body of the message, so it is obviously been customised.
They actually have my name in the body of the message, so it is obviously been customised.
not necessarily by a human, just a program running through a huge list of names linked to email addresses. Really not much that they can do with that info, short of hoping you respond to their email with payment details.
Forget about it.
If you want to know where they got your name, stick your email address in here
You almost always put your name and email when signing up for things!
This has been doing the rounds for ages. I regularly get them with "here is your password as proof" and a password I last used like 20 years ago. As Xora suggests, Troy's site will tell you if your credentials have been compromised (spoiler: they have). Don't reuse passwords for anything important, kiddies.
OP - I got a long string of these and the language and frequency was genuinely quite distressing in a quietly malevolent way (I'm a delicate little thing obviously). All variations on a theme of I've hidden spyware in your drivers/system files following your dirty internet activity - a sort of pseudo computer science waffle.
Knowing that I had not been indulging in online viewing of "adult cuddle time" was good reassurance but I got a string of them at the same time as someone had made a few attacks on accessing the same email from China. Microsoft blocked it, security details were changed and the issue was reported even so it was a little perturbing.
Took about 3-6 months for it to tail off again. Obviously realised my address was non productive. Still get the odd one.
Fwiw the email I've had affected doesn't come up on the site Xora linked.
I'm not sure but I think that's only the actual account/password compromised and not your name / email being on a stolen list without security credentials.
What I've never known is if the pwned site is a list of emails associated with passwords but that might be
your email + your password for (say) Wiggle
Or
Your email + your email account password
Or either/both.
Sometimes the simplest solution is the correct one, did you use your real name and email addy when signing up for biggayfun.com?