Someone else's Google account tried to connect to mine

RealGem

Hi,

I just got an email from Google saying:

Title: New sign-in from Internet Explorer on Windows

Hi
Your Google Account (similar-name-but-not-exactly-the-same-as-yours)@gmail.com was just used to sign in from Internet Explorer on Windows.

I have security alerts set up so I get these emails whenever I log in on a new device.

But this time, it's not even my account or my exact name!

Why on earth would Google assume we are the same person?

I would like to know how this happened, and also if it has anything to do with me losing my phone recently (which I stupidly did not have a handset lock on, so someone could find out my email address and see all my pics)

I'm concerned that the person who now has my phone, has set up a similar account name and tried to connect the two accounts. I have now disconnected the two accounts, but am I right in my suspicions that someone was trying to access my original account?

Thank you

RealGem

Does anyone know if this means the people who have my phone are trying to hack into my Gmail account.

Or can someone give the most likely scenario?

Any help at all would be appreciated.

thanks a lot

grumbler

RealGem wrote: »

(similar-name-but-not-exactly-the-same-as-yours)

I don't understand how this can happen as in the settings I cannot change the e-mail address that the alerts get sent to, i.e. it can be only my e-mail address.

Tigsteroonie

RealGem wrote: »

I would like to know how this happened, and also if it has anything to do with me losing my phone recently (which I stupidly did not have a handset lock on, so someone could find out my email address and see all my pics)

Presumably you went online immediately on your pc/laptop/tablet and changed the Gmail password for you account?

RealGem

grumbler wrote: »

I don't understand how this can happen as in the settings I cannot change the e-mail address that the alerts get sent to, i.e. it can be only my e-mail address.

Yes, it is the same email the alert was sent to!

But someone has tried to LINK a second account to my REAL account. I am assuming this is so they only need the login for the second account to access BOTH accounts.

But of course I did not agree to link the accounts.

The person who tried to link the accounts would not have been aware that I would get an alert.

It appears my suspicions could be justified, but I asked on here to see if someone could confirm or deny my suspicions.

thanks

Tigsteroonie wrote: »

Presumably you went online immediately on your pc/laptop/tablet and changed the Gmail password for you account?

Yes - Definitely!

thanks

Jivesinger

The first thing I would do is attempt to establish if the email is real or if it's spam.

What happens if you log in to gmail (*don't* use a link from that email, if there is one) and then go into Google Account settings and look at the Device Activity and Notifications?

RealGem

Jivesinger wrote: »

The first thing I would do is attempt to establish if the email is real or if it's spam.

What happens if you log in to gmail (*don't* use a link from that email, if there is one) and then go into Google Account settings and look at the Device Activity and Notifications?

Thanks, the email looks like it is definitely from Google. The sender address is:
no-reply@accounts.google.com


Also, all the links in the email have authentic looking urls when I hover over them. They all end in ...google.com.

This second email is not mentioned in my Account Activity, but I thought it was because it was an email address trying to link to mine, and not a direct login.

But also I notice the info in Account Activity is quite flaky. Because now it says a phone (my current phone) logged in on July 1st from London, and I only went to London for the weekend on the 3rd).

There have been other inconsistencies too.

NICHOLAS_2

When i get emails from google, which i do quite a bit because they pay me money every month, and i sometimes pay them money, they always end in google.com. You seem to have a subdomain accounts in yours, which looks odd to me, i don't recognise seeing that.

I recently got an email from google when i did change my email and it was from account-misc-noreply@google.com

I think that the email you were sent was possibly not from google and the address showing in the sent from was spoofed or there is a misspel in it to make it look real?

They will want you to click on the link within the email to receive a virus or to phish your info.

It's not something worth worrying about, unless you clicked the link.

RealGem

NICHOLAS wrote: »

When i get emails from google, which i do quite a bit because they pay me money every month, and i sometimes pay them money, they always end in google.com. You seem to have a subdomain accounts in yours, which looks odd to me, i don't recognise seeing that.

I recently got an email from google when i did change my email and it was from [EMAIL="account-misc-noreply@google.com"]account-misc-noreply@google.com[/EMAIL]

I think that the email you were sent was possibly not from google and the address showing in the sent from was spoofed or there is a misspel in it to make it look real?

They will want you to click on the link within the email to receive a virus or to phish your info.

It's not something worth worrying about, unless you clicked the link.

Thanks,

I did a search within Gmail for that exact email address they sent from:

no-reply@accounts.google.com

and they have sent me many emails from the same address. This is the same subdomain email address they send alerts from every time I change my password.

Geodark

NICHOLAS wrote: »

When i get emails from google, which i do quite a bit because they pay me money every month, and i sometimes pay them money, they always end in google.com. You seem to have a subdomain accounts in yours, which looks odd to me, i don't recognise seeing that.

I recently got an email from google when i did change my email and it was from account-misc-noreply@google.com

I think that the email you were sent was possibly not from google and the address showing in the sent from was spoofed or there is a misspel in it to make it look real?

They will want you to click on the link within the email to receive a virus or to phish your info.

It's not something worth worrying about, unless you clicked the link.

the no-reply@accounts.google.com is valid - just had one of the emails myself after setting up chrome on a pi2.

grumbler

RealGem wrote: »

Thanks, the email looks like it is definitely from Google. The sender address is:
no-reply@accounts.google.com.

I am pretty sure the sender address is the easiest thing to fake.