[slightly OT] spam, scam or genuine mistake

[Chris]

Sorry for the slightly OT post, but not sure where else to ask.

Recently, I received a receipt from a genuine tyre place in New Jersey to
my gmail. It details a repair and service to someone's car. Not really a
surprise as sometimes that happens. However, I'm now getting 2-3 of these a
week addressed to the same few people, but for different cars. Doesn't feel
like spam, but does feel like a scam. Who's the target, though, me or the
garage?

Anyone else getting things like this?

[Woody]

What is the point of asking such a question on a UK usenet group??????

[Mark Carver]

Because gmail addresses are not country specific ?

[Andy Burns]

Chris wrote:

> Anyone else getting things like this?

I've had the odd person who obviously doesn't remember their own email
address, and has accidentally give-out one of mine to someone else, but
they've all been one-offs

[Jeff Gaines]

On 20/02/2021 in message <s0r1jm$rhs$1...@dont-email.me> Woody wrote:

>What is the point of asking such a question on a UK usenet group??????

If you're American any group beginning with "u" must be usa.xxx mustn't it?

--
Jeff Gaines Wiltshire UK
It may be that your sole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.

[Figaro]

On Sat, 20 Feb 2021 12:53:08 -0000 (UTC), Chris <ithi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Yes: I have a gmail address AAA...@gmail.com and have been
receiving emails addressed to AAA...@gmail.com all from America. Just
ignored them. Seems to be a fault in the gmail system.

[Andy Burns]

Figaro wrote:

> I have a gmail address AAA...@gmail.com and have been
> receiving emails addressed to AAA...@gmail.com all from America. Just
> ignored them. Seems to be a fault in the gmail system.

It's not a fault, it's deliberate; gmail ignores dots in email
addresses, if you have the gmail address aaaabb nobody else can register
aaaa.bb or aa.aabb or a.a.a.a.b.b, they are in effect all aliases for
you, that doesn't seem to stop idiots from giving out email addresses
which they think they own, but they don't.

It's a while since I tested, but I think it doesn't ignore leading or
trailing dots like .aaaabb or aaaabb. maybe it doesn't ignore multiple
dots like aaaa.....bb as well

[Graham J]

You could email the tyre place. If it's their mistake they might
undersand and thank you.

But given how inept even apparently intelligent people are with email
they might not understand or do anything.

So just send one email and after that try to forget about it.

--
Graham J

[Steve]

I have that as well only the email address I use has the
dot and the ones that are spammed to me have no dot. And
it does seem to be a deliberate attempt to spam flood me
as I get a couple of sign ups to all sorts of email a
couple of times most days. Either that or the person
signing up for everything with my gmail is a complete and
utter fuckwit, as this has been going on for over a year.

Just
> ignored them. Seems to be a fault in the gmail system.

I set a filter to delete the emails with no dot
separating my first and last name and then check the bin
when I remember to do so.

[Abandoned_Trolley]

I have had almost exactly the same problem with gmail too.

I have an email address with them which I thought was unique until I
started getting emails to a "dotted" variant as outlined above. I cant
remember how but I eventually got in touch with a real human at gmail
who confirmed what Figaro has said.

The real problem was that the variant address was somehow used to create
an eBay account, and it took some time to get it closed. For "security
reasons" eBay would offer no explanation for the opening of the account
but eventually agreed to close it.

They confirmed that no transactions had ever taken place on the account
but it seems like an astonishing loophole in the system somewhere.



On a sort of related topic, I would be interested to know of peoples
experiences of email addresses containing underscores - like
joe_b...@xxx.com etc. I have one with hotmail which occasionally gets
bounced by fussy (or standards compliant ?) mail servers.

AT

[Andy Burns]

Abandoned_Trolley wrote:

> I have had almost exactly the same problem with gmail too.
>
> I have an email address with them which I thought was unique until I
> started getting emails to a "dotted" variant as outlined above.

So, confirming that the extra dotted addresses "belong" to you and are
delivered to you?

> I cant
> remember how but I eventually got in touch with a real human at gmail
> who confirmed what Figaro has said.
>
> The real problem was that the variant address was somehow used to create
> an eBay account

So it's not a gmail problem, it's an ebay problem, somehow they have a
way that an ebay account can be opened without confirmation from the
actual owner of the email address...

[Abandoned_Trolley]

Well, in this (hopefully isolated) case my view is that its a gmail
problem AND an eBay problem.


If you want to subscribe to the "its not a bug, its a feature" view of
the gmail problem then thats up to you.


At the time I tested it out by sending an email to the variant address,
and it turned up in my gmail inbox.


AT

[Woody]

I had assumed that the reference to New Jersey meant he was across the pond.

However I would say that I know one of my addresses has been pwned and
I'm getting 4-5 mails a day all from US organisations trying to sell me
things - and a Co address ending with US state letters. My mail filter
is getting towards its limit!!

[Andy Burns]

Abandoned_Trolley wrote:

> If you want to subscribe to the "its not a bug, its a feature" view of
> the gmail problem then thats up to you.

google themselves tell you it's a feature ...

<https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en-GB>

[Mark Carver]

On 20/02/2021 15:29, Woody wrote:
>
>>> What is the point of asking such a question on a UK usenet group??????
>>
>> Because gmail addresses are not country specific ?
>
> I had assumed that the reference to New Jersey meant he was across the
> pond.
>

Why do you assume that, literally after just a few seconds worth of
searching, reveals Chris is very much a UK resident,

[Abandoned_Trolley]

As I said, If you want to subscribe to the "its not a bug, its a
feature" view of the gmail problem then thats up to you - I wasnt
suggesting you would be alone.


The page you guided me to says "No one else gets your emails" , "No one
can take your username" and "No one sees your emails" but the very next
paragraph heading says "What to do if you get someone else's email"
which to me implies that somebody else might get yours ?

The icing on this cake of shite come at the end, where it says

"Note: Unfortunately, we can't prevent people from accidentally or
maliciously using a dotted version of your address to sign up for
subscription emails" (and maybe other services ?)

But at no point on the page does it explain the benefits of this policy.

You appear to think its an unmitigated blessing, and I happen to think
its a bloody nuisance (at best) and if my experience is anything to go
by then it might enable some sort of eBay fraud.

Also, I am guessing that the OP of this thread is not too impressed either.

Lets just agree to differ on the subject

AT

[Steve]

On Sat, 20 Feb 2021 16:03:34 +0000, Abandoned_Trolley
wrote:

I think it's a bloody nuisance too, but it wouldn't be
anywhere near as bad if email subscriptions were verified
first. In my experience a lot of US based organisations
don't bother with that check before subscribing you.

[brightside]

ditto.

--
brightside S9

[notya...@gmail.com]

I get occasional ones on my btinternet account where the sender leaves off the number at the end of later customers' email addresses so mail for fred39 comes to fred.

What looks to be happening here is fairly benign. Your email address [e.g. aaa...@gmail.com] was accidentally typed in once, and since then has been auto filled by a lazy employee who types aaa into the to field and when it produces your address hits enter.

[Malcolm Loades]

On 20/02/2021 14:12, Figaro wrote:
>
> Yes: I have a gmail address AAA...@gmail.com and have been
> receiving emails addressed to AAA...@gmail.com all from America. Just
> ignored them. Seems to be a fault in the gmail system.
>

My gmail address has a dot in the first part. I've just emailed my
address without the dot and the mail arrived!

You earn something new every day.

Malcolm

[Chris]

Woody <harro...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> On Sat 20/02/2021 13:55, Mark Carver wrote:
>> On 20/02/2021 13:08, Woody wrote:
>>> On Sat 20/02/2021 12:53, Chris wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Sorry for the slightly OT post, but not sure where else to ask.
>>>>
>>>> Recently, I received a receipt from a genuine tyre place in New
>>>> Jersey to
>>>> my gmail. It details a repair and service to someone's car. Not really a
>>>> surprise as sometimes that happens. However, I'm now getting 2-3 of
>>>> these a
>>>> week addressed to the same few people, but for different cars.
>>>> Doesn't feel
>>>> like spam, but does feel like a scam. Who's the target, though, me or
>>>> the
>>>> garage?
>>>>
>>>> Anyone else getting things like this?
>>>>
>>>
>>> What is the point of asking such a question on a UK usenet group??????
>>
>> Because gmail addresses are not country specific ?
>
> I had assumed that the reference to New Jersey meant he was across the pond.

Sorry for the confusion. I'm in the Uk and am getting these odd emails from
the US.

> However I would say that I know one of my addresses has been pwned and
> I'm getting 4-5 mails a day all from US organisations trying to sell me
> things - and a Co address ending with US state letters. My mail filter
> is getting towards its limit!!

That's the thing though, they're not selling me anything.

[Chris]

That's plausible. Although, my email has my name in it and none of the
"customers" names are similar to mine.

[Brian Gregory]

I have the same.

But once it was multiple emails because something had been sent out to
many people with my email address included and they where discussing
something and using reply-all.

Another time someone gave my email to some government site in Australia
(or maybe New Zealand, not sure) to do with pre-paid parking or
something. I emailed back and they said they couldn't do anything about
it. I got fed up with all the emails so I tried to log in with the email
and said I'd forgotten the password, hey presto a link was emailed to me
to change my password which I did and then I think I closed the account.
Probably illegal but I figured I'd already tried to tell them the email
address didn't belong to who they thought it did and Australia is a long
way away.

--
Brian Gregory (in England).

[Chris Green]

Or even learn! :-)

--
Chris Green
·

[Chris Green]

notya...@gmail.com <notya...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Saturday, 20 February 2021 at 12:53:11 UTC, Chris wrote:
> > Sorry for the slightly OT post, but not sure where else to ask.
> >
> > Recently, I received a receipt from a genuine tyre place in New Jersey to
> > my gmail. It details a repair and service to someone's car. Not really a
> > surprise as sometimes that happens. However, I'm now getting 2-3 of these a
> > week addressed to the same few people, but for different cars. Doesn't feel
> > like spam, but does feel like a scam. Who's the target, though, me or the
> > garage?
> >
> > Anyone else getting things like this?
>
> I get occasional ones on my btinternet account where the sender leaves
> off the number at the end of later customers' email addresses so mail for
> fred39 comes to fred.
>

Yet another reason for registering a domain of your own! :-)

You could be fred, bert, jim, freda, whatever you fancy if you owned
your own domain. Plus you get the advantage of a short and easy to
remember (and tell others) address. I have a four character co.uk
domain (plus .net .uk and some others with the same four characters).
There's still short domain names out there if you want them, mostly for
the princely sum of a tenner a year or less.

--
Chris Green
·

[notya...@gmail.com]

I agree. When I set up in ~1997 I didn't know how to do it, nor wish to pay a fee and very soon it was too late.

[Chris Green]

When was it too late? As I said there are still 4 letter .co.uk
domains available and certainly there are .uk ones which make your
E-Mail address even shorter. Plus there are lots of others which
might suit better. Many domains are still around the £10/year sort of
price and, if you choose the right host, you'll get E-Mail services
as part of the deal.

--
Chris Green
·

[Woody]

I would recommend FreeParking.co.uk who operate from the IoM. Their
charges include unlimited forwarding of up to 10 domain email addresses.

[Chris Green]

Do they provide mailbox space as well? If not then Gandi provide two
3Gb mailboxes with each domain you have hosted with them. I would
imagine that there are many other similar offers around.

--
Chris Green
·

[Woody]

Well, I'm on VM and they provide 15GB of mailbox space per address - and
you are allow ten on one B/B account. I run pop3 but don't do any auto
delete off the mail server (except for junk mail) and have only
something like 700Mb on the most used address in nearly 20 years!

[Chris Green]

Yes, but presumably you're spending (relatively) quite a lot of money
with them. A domain registered at Gandi will cost less than £10/year
and you get two 3Gb mailboxes included.

--
Chris Green
·

[Abandoned_Trolley]

Are you able to register a .uk domain without owning the matching .co.uk
domain ?

AT

[Tweed]

Yes, I have one.

[Chris Green]

Abandoned_Trolley <fr...@fred-smith.uk> wrote:
> >
> > When was it too late? As I said there are still 4 letter .co.uk
> > domains available and certainly there are .uk ones which make your
> > E-Mail address even shorter. Plus there are lots of others which
> > might suit better. Many domains are still around the £10/year sort of
> > price and, if you choose the right host, you'll get E-Mail services
> > as part of the deal.
> >
>
> Are you able to register a .uk domain without owning the matching .co.uk
> domain ?
>

Yes, of course. I've never come across a restriction of that sort
with any TLD. The only rules I know about are TLDs restricted to
certain groups - e.g. you must have a corresponding Ltd. company to
register a xxx.ltd.uk domain and you must have a French address and/or
be French to register a .fr. (Some countries restrict their TLD like
this, others don't).

--
Chris Green
·

[Bob Eager]

There was an initial restriction, but I don't know how long it lasted.

If you had xyzzy.co.uk, then you were given first dibs on xyzzy.uk. I
don't know if you could reject it (and free it up) if you weren't
interested, but you were certainly the only one who could register
xyzzy.uk initially.

[Jeff Gaines]

On 22/02/2021 in message <i9hbok...@mid.individual.net> Bob Eager wrote:

>There was an initial restriction, but I don't know how long it lasted.
>
>If you had xyzzy.co.uk, then you were given first dibs on xyzzy.uk. I
>don't know if you could reject it (and free it up) if you weren't
>interested, but you were certainly the only one who could register
>xyzzy.uk initially.

Yes I remember that I have my .uk because I had .co.uk.

--
Jeff Gaines Wiltshire UK
By the time you can make ends meet they move the ends

[Chris Green]

Yes, that's right, existing xxx.co.uk domain owners were offered
xxx.uk before it went on 'general sale' but that's all, once someone
else had bought it you couldn't claim it back.

--
Chris Green
·

[Abandoned_Trolley]

As far as I can make out .uk registrations were introduced around 2013
and were reserved for the .co.uk "parent" for 5 years to allow them to
catch up.

Some domain registration outfits appear to still enforce this
reservation though, possibly in their own commercial interests (=more
sales) - try your luck at lcn.com and you might see what I mean.

And, on a related topic, I believe UK residents have recently been
prevented from registering .eu domains

AT

[Bob Eager]

On Mon, 22 Feb 2021 13:23:36 +0000, Abandoned_Trolley wrote:

> And, on a related topic, I believe UK residents have recently been
> prevented from registering .eu domains

Yes. The most amusing part was that leave.eu had to move their offuce
INTO the EU to keep their domain name.

[Jeff Gaines]

On 22/02/2021 in message <s10b8s$lmh$1...@dont-email.me> Abandoned_Trolley
wrote:

>And, on a related topic, I believe UK residents have recently been
>prevented from registering .eu domains

And required to cease any existing .eu domain.

--
Jeff Gaines Wiltshire UK

Have you ever noticed that all the instruments searching for intelligent
life are pointing away from Earth?

[Abandoned_Trolley]

But in the interests of democracy they were give a EU grant to cover the
costs ?

AT

[Chris Green]

Abandoned_Trolley <fr...@fred-smith.uk> wrote:
> On 22/02/2021 09:08, Chris Green wrote:
> > Abandoned_Trolley <fr...@fred-smith.uk> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> When was it too late? As I said there are still 4 letter .co.uk
> >>> domains available and certainly there are .uk ones which make your
> >>> E-Mail address even shorter. Plus there are lots of others which
> >>> might suit better. Many domains are still around the £10/year sort of
> >>> price and, if you choose the right host, you'll get E-Mail services
> >>> as part of the deal.
> >>>
> >>
> >> Are you able to register a .uk domain without owning the matching .co.uk
> >> domain ?
> >>
> > Yes, of course. I've never come across a restriction of that sort
> > with any TLD. The only rules I know about are TLDs restricted to
> > certain groups - e.g. you must have a corresponding Ltd. company to
> > register a xxx.ltd.uk domain and you must have a French address and/or
> > be French to register a .fr. (Some countries restrict their TLD like
> > this, others don't).
> >
>
> As far as I can make out .uk registrations were introduced around 2013
> and were reserved for the .co.uk "parent" for 5 years to allow them to
> catch up.
>

Surely it wasn't as long as 5 years was it?

> Some domain registration outfits appear to still enforce this
> reservation though, possibly in their own commercial interests (=more
> sales) - try your luck at lcn.com and you might see what I mean.
>

Neither of my domain hosters (Tso and Gandi) have any such restriction.

> And, on a related topic, I believe UK residents have recently been
> prevented from registering .eu domains
>

Yes, like .fr, .eu has a limitation like this. However the
requirement is not that you are an EU citizen, rather that you have an
EU address. I have a .eu and kept it by providing a French address.
UK holders of .fr domains are being allowed to retain them, but you
can't get a new one now.

Each country/TLD has its own rules.

--
Chris Green
·

[Woody]

On Mon 22/02/2021 13:58, Jeff Gaines wrote:
> On 22/02/2021 in message <s10b8s$lmh$1...@dont-email.me> Abandoned_Trolley
> wrote:
>
>> And, on a related topic, I believe UK residents have recently been
>> prevented from registering .eu domains
>
> And required to cease any existing .eu domain.
>

That would be strange then that an amateur radio and aerial supplier
moonraker.eu based in MK is still using the same address.

[Woody]

Plus why can't we continue to use eu - we may not be in the European
Union any more but we are still in Europe - so was whoever thought up
the eu appendage intending it to refer to Europe or the political body
with those ititials?

[Jeff Gaines]

It's an EU ruling, if you want to keep your.eu domain you must have an
office in the EU.

--
Jeff Gaines Wiltshire UK

George Washington was a British subject until well after his 40th birthday.
(Margaret Thatcher, speech at the White House 17 December 1979)

[notya...@gmail.com]

When all my contacts had got used to me using my main email address - not this one obviously.

BT now charge you £7.50p per month to keep an email address alive during transition and then there are all those log ins that rely on the address...

[Chris Green]

Well move the domain away from BT to somewhere cheaper! I assume it's
not an xxx.yyy.bt.com or xxx.yyy.btinternet.com type address.

--
Chris Green
·

[Jim Jackson]

On 2021-02-22, Jeff Gaines <jgaines...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> On 22/02/2021 in message <s10nv2$4vq$2...@dont-email.me> Woody wrote:
>
>>On Mon 22/02/2021 16:58, Woody wrote:
>>>On Mon 22/02/2021 13:58, Jeff Gaines wrote:
>>>>On 22/02/2021 in message <s10b8s$lmh$1...@dont-email.me> Abandoned_Trolley
>>>>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>And, on a related topic, I believe UK residents have recently been
>>>>>prevented from registering .eu domains
>>>>
>>>>And required to cease any existing .eu domain.
>>>>
>>>That would be strange then that an amateur radio and aerial supplier
>>>moonraker.eu based in MK is still using the same address.
>>
>>Plus why can't we continue to use eu - we may not be in the European Union
>>any more but we are still in Europe - so was whoever thought up the eu
>>appendage intending it to refer to Europe or the political body with those
>>ititials?
>
> It's an EU ruling, if you want to keep your.eu domain you must have an
> office in the EU.

here is the link ...

https://eurid.eu/en/register-a-eu-domain/brexit-notice/

[Chris]

There is a cheaper option. This was covered by money box a while back -
can't find the exact episode - but you should contact BT and ask for
alternatives.

Or just bite the bullet and migrate everything away from it.

[Chris]

Jeff Gaines <jgaines...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> On 22/02/2021 in message <s10nv2$4vq$2...@dont-email.me> Woody wrote:
>
>> On Mon 22/02/2021 16:58, Woody wrote:
>>> On Mon 22/02/2021 13:58, Jeff Gaines wrote:
>>>> On 22/02/2021 in message <s10b8s$lmh$1...@dont-email.me> Abandoned_Trolley
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> And, on a related topic, I believe UK residents have recently been
>>>>> prevented from registering .eu domains
>>>>
>>>> And required to cease any existing .eu domain.
>>>>
>>> That would be strange then that an amateur radio and aerial supplier
>>> moonraker.eu based in MK is still using the same address.
>>
>> Plus why can't we continue to use eu - we may not be in the European Union
>> any more but we are still in Europe - so was whoever thought up the eu
>> appendage intending it to refer to Europe or the political body with those
>> ititials?
>
> It's an EU ruling, if you want to keep your.eu domain you must have an
> office in the EU.

A hilarious example is the leave.eu campaign group. They've been told to,
well, leave the .eu >D
https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/08/leave_eu_domain_name_hilarity/

[Chris]

There's a three-month grace period.

[bert]

In article <i9cjbi...@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns
<use...@andyburns.uk> writes

>Chris wrote:
>
>> Anyone else getting things like this?
>

>I've had the odd person who obviously doesn't remember their own email
>address, and has accidentally give-out one of mine to someone else, but
>they've all been one-offs
I've had a few in the past where someone had accidentally given on of my
addresses which ended .org They were for hotel bookings.

Just ignore them. If they are genuine then eventually they will work out
why their emails are not getting through.
--
bert

[Richard Tobin]

In article <wi$5NUBz8...@ghcq.uk>, bert <be...@bert.bert.com> wrote:

>I've had a few in the past where someone had accidentally given on of my
>addresses which ended .org They were for hotel bookings.

Hotel booking emails are often part of a pre-payment scam. They pay
for a room in advance, "accidentally" overpay, and request a refund of
the excess. The original payment then bounces, and the hotel owner
has lost the "refund".

The fact that you are not a hotel doesn't matter, they just send them
to everyone.

-- Richard