I noticed this morning that someone had signed me up for a few mailing lists. And by "a few" I mean over a hundred - widely varying topics, and many not in English.
At first I thought a friend might be pranking me. I picked through each email that made it to my inbox (hundreds more were caught by my spam filter), and buried in the deluge of "Welcome to Chantelle Lingerie" and "Thanks for your interest in the Royal New Zealand Ballet" was an email from Best Buy, thanking me for a $700 purchase that I hadn't made.
My name was on the order, but the address was different, and just a few miles from my house. I could see the last four digits of the credit card used, and it didn't look familiar. Immediately following was another email indicating that the order has been cancelled. If the card used was mine, it was an old one that is no longer active.
Apparently this is a common scam: get somebody's name, email address, and credit card, deluge them with mailing list signups, and hope they don't see the order and shipping notices for that expensive item you bought in their name and had shipped to your house.
So PSA, if this happens to you, it's likely not a prank. Check your accounts for unexpected purchases immediately.
At first I thought a friend might be pranking me. I picked through each email that made it to my inbox (hundreds more were caught by my spam filter), and buried in the deluge of "Welcome to Chantelle Lingerie" and "Thanks for your interest in the Royal New Zealand Ballet" was an email from Best Buy, thanking me for a $700 purchase that I hadn't made.
My name was on the order, but the address was different, and just a few miles from my house. I could see the last four digits of the credit card used, and it didn't look familiar. Immediately following was another email indicating that the order has been cancelled. If the card used was mine, it was an old one that is no longer active.
Apparently this is a common scam: get somebody's name, email address, and credit card, deluge them with mailing list signups, and hope they don't see the order and shipping notices for that expensive item you bought in their name and had shipped to your house.
So PSA, if this happens to you, it's likely not a prank. Check your accounts for unexpected purchases immediately.
