Got an email this morning from Everything But the House saying I was outbid on a diamond ring. I thought, wtf is this? Logged into my account and saw that I had 3 bids out on expensive jewelry, two of them still winning. One had a max bid of $2000, the other $500. Luckily I got through to someone pretty quickly and they're working with their fraud department to get stuff figured out.

Checked my account address and saw this was added:

larissa kr
3601 Old Capitol Trail unit A-7 #207021
wilmington, DE 19808-6042
United States

I don't know who larissa is, but I hate her.

All of this to say, DO NOT REUSE PASSWORDS, especially on sites with credit cards associated with them.

Another security tip, if you're a gmail user. 

The following emails are all the same as far as gmail is concerned, but are all different as far as any website or mailing list is concerned.

justincredible@gmail.com
justin.credible@gmail.com
j.u.s.t.i.n.c.r.e.d.i.b.l.e@gmail.com
justincredible+1@gmail.com
justincredible+2@gmail.com
justincredible+farts@gmail.com

Basically, a single gmail address can receive email from essentially an infinite number of different addresses. This is useful for filtering spam and segregating your inbox. Say you want to signup for an email list, add a +whatever at the end to denote where you're signing up. This gives you insight on whether or not they've sold your info, as well, if you start getting random emails to that address.

posted by justincredible

Another security tip, if you're a gmail user. 

The following emails are all the same as far as gmail is concerned, but are all different as far as any website or mailing list is concerned.

justincredible@gmail.com
justin.credible@gmail.com
j.u.s.t.i.n.c.r.e.d.i.b.l.e@gmail.com
justincredible+1@gmail.com
justincredible+2@gmail.com
justincredible+farts@gmail.com

Basically, a single gmail address can receive email from essentially an infinite number of different addresses. This is useful for filtering spam and segregating your inbox. Say you want to signup for an email list, add a +whatever at the end to denote where you're signing up. This gives you insight on whether or not they've sold your info, as well, if you start getting random emails to that address.

Didn't know this, but it raises a few questions. I use Gmail and my address is fake.name@gmail.com

For about 5 years I've received random emails that had been sent to fakename@gmail.com.

Some were receipts for large purchases, some were work contracts (the guy is apparently a firefighter and has moved states once during this time), some were personal emails, but the addresses on file are usually consistent, and the last 4 digits of the credit cards used for payment have never been related to mine.

Does the guy just give people the wrong email address by accident, or is this shady? I've responded to a few emails that seemed important to let them know I wasn't the intended recipient, but I've never recevied a reply.

That’s weird. That’s definitely your email address, both with and without the period. Not sure how or why that would be used for shady purposes, I’m assuming he’s just giving out the wrong address on accident. 

Prayers go out to all involved.

posted by MontyBrunswick

Prayers go out to all involved.

Hackers suck

Is this when I give my account numbers to the Nigerian banker?

posted by Spock

Is this when I give my account numbers to the Nigerian banker?

Is there anyone that would be shocked if you did fall for a Nigerian scam?

I know I've seen a few half-decent phishing attempts trying to get my banking info via Apple ID and PayPal. The kind that didn't get me because I'm really suspicious of any email that involves any sort of "we need this info to do anything about this" sort of spiel, but did make me wonder how many people could potentially get fooled by it.

I remember the Apple one was an email receipt for an app "I" had "purchased". First thought was "Did I get hacked and someone is using my account to buy stuff?", but a quick check of my bank account (no purchases to Apple on either my bank account or credit card) and a quick device check to see that my home computer is the only thing that's accessed my Apple account and it was all over, but it did make me think that there's probably a lot of people who'd see an email like that, think their info was compromised and "log in" via the link provided on the receipt to basically hand over their info to whomever was running the scam.

To be fair,those were some really nice looking rings.