Someone using my details to sign up on gambling sites for free bets

[Deleted User]

JJ_Egan said:

Is it praise or a warning ??

If you have a constructive suggestion to move this to another board then I have no problem with that, but there wasn't an obvious one to choose for this issue. This board tends to deal with scams so seemed the best choice out of those available.

pbartlett

These sites require the scammer to verify 'your' email address before bets can be placed (they don't just accept random emails). 

Accounts need a valid payment / withdrawal method (they have to be the same and in your name)

I don't see how this scam works

[Deleted User]

pbartlett said:

These sites require the scammer to verify 'your' email address before bets can be placed (they don't just accept random emails). 

Accounts need a valid payment / withdrawal method (they have to be the same and in your name)

I don't see how this scam works

If you could pass this on to the scammers that they're wasting their time then that would be great, but given it is in fact happening I'm going to assume it does work on some level. I know they don't have my email password because I changed it in between the first and second time they did it.

Tokmon

Deleted_User said:

On a couple of occasions recently I've had an email in my inbox welcoming me to a gambling site which I've never signed up for. These are well known gambling sites (Pokerstars was one) and in each case I went to the site and contacted their customer service to get the account blocked. On one occasion I used the forgot password feature to access the account and could see that someone had put my name, email and address in to set it up, they'd taken a free bet offer, done some bets and then withdrawn it.

I've since read that this is a relatively common scam - people get your details somehow (e.g. a data leak on another website) and then sign up for huge numbers of free bets on gambling sites. Obviously I don't want this to happen again. I wondered if anyone else has experienced it and what they did.

My first thought was to sign up for Gamstop (the self exclusion from gambling websites service) as this would automatically block any future account creation using my details. My only concern is whether this will make me look like a gambling addict and cause some kind of problems down the line.

This makes no sense because why would they use your actual email address when they could just make up a new email address and then use that with all your details so you didn't find out what was happening. Are you sure this isn't someone you know that is doing this and they are using your real email to make sure you find out as they want to worry you and cause you issues for some reason?

p3ncilsharpener

Tokmon said:

Deleted_User said:

On a couple of occasions recently I've had an email in my inbox welcoming me to a gambling site which I've never signed up for. These are well known gambling sites (Pokerstars was one) and in each case I went to the site and contacted their customer service to get the account blocked. On one occasion I used the forgot password feature to access the account and could see that someone had put my name, email and address in to set it up, they'd taken a free bet offer, done some bets and then withdrawn it.

I've since read that this is a relatively common scam - people get your details somehow (e.g. a data leak on another website) and then sign up for huge numbers of free bets on gambling sites. Obviously I don't want this to happen again. I wondered if anyone else has experienced it and what they did.

My first thought was to sign up for Gamstop (the self exclusion from gambling websites service) as this would automatically block any future account creation using my details. My only concern is whether this will make me look like a gambling addict and cause some kind of problems down the line.

This makes no sense because why would they use your actual email address when they could just make up a new email address and then use that with all your details so you didn't find out what was happening. Are you sure this isn't someone you know that is doing this and they are using your real email to make sure you find out as they want to worry you and cause you issues for some reason?

Yes, quite.

I've had this a lot with one of my long-standing email addresses, it's very old and quite a good email address that is essentially abbreviatedfirstnamesurname@gmail.com (say jimsmith@gmail.com) and a surprising number of people seem to think that this is their email address. It's surprising how many sites actually don't require email addresses to be verified and will quite happily send all sorts of confidential information without it.  I've counted at least 3 people who stupidly keep signing me up to all sorts of guff but have long since given up and have now started blocking (rather than marking as spam) most of the crap that I get.

Brie

Should it happen again I would suggest that you go onto the site to check what card/bank details are being used.  If they are yours then there's definitely a problem and you will need to monitor your card/bank for other fraudulent use.  If they are not then I would change them to your and also change the password and take any money held in the account.   And then get the site to close the account.

I was going to suggest that you change the account details to yours and wait for the scammer to have some more wins before withdrawing a larger amount.  But this would leave you open to having the scammer getting your card/bank details which may be what they are actually after.

p3ncilsharpener

Brie said:

Should it happen again I would suggest that you go onto the site to check what card/bank details are being used.  If they are yours then there's definitely a problem and you will need to monitor your card/bank for other fraudulent use.  If they are not then I would change them to your and also change the password and take any money held in the account.   And then get the site to close the account.

I was going to suggest that you change the account details to yours and wait for the scammer to have some more wins before withdrawing a larger amount.  But this would leave you open to having the scammer getting your card/bank details which may be what they are actually after.

I suspect that the OP would know if they're using their card details.

I also suspect that the "scammer" has no intention of winning at the bookies.

Lou76

As crazy as this may sound, it's true.

I had an issue last year whereby I was receiving loads of emails for Weightwatchers being cancelled (was getting a complex lol), order confirmations for Truprints etc .

Anyway, every one of them mentioned a NI address, I'm in Glasgow.

To be honest, I ignored them thinking it was spam.  Then I received an email from a company asking me to contact them regarding my £320 order for children's clothes.  I don't have children, or anyone of that age I would be buying for.

That's when I looked at the bottom of the email, and there was "my" contact name, address in NI, and phone number, and email. 

My email is firstname.surname1976@gmail.com

The intended recipient of the email was firstnamesurname1976@gmail.com

No dot between names.

Thankfully, as a result of the last email, I had her mobile number and phoned her to explain what had been happening.   I've had that email address for about 15 years, she had only registered hers in the past year.

I then forwarded everything onto her alternative address, and since then, nothing.🙂

Anyway, that was a rather long winded attempt at explaining what could possibly have happened to the OP. 🤣

Tokmon

Lou76 said:

As crazy as this may sound, it's true.

I had an issue last year whereby I was receiving loads of emails for Weightwatchers being cancelled (was getting a complex lol), order confirmations for Truprints etc .

Anyway, every one of them mentioned a NI address, I'm in Glasgow.

To be honest, I ignored them thinking it was spam.  Then I received an email from a company asking me to contact them regarding my £320 order for children's clothes.  I don't have children, or anyone of that age I would be buying for.

That's when I looked at the bottom of the email, and there was "my" contact name, address in NI, and phone number, and email. 

My email is firstname.surname1976@gmail.com

The intended recipient of the email was firstnamesurname1976@gmail.com

No dot between names.

Thankfully, as a result of the last email, I had her mobile number and phoned her to explain what had been happening.   I've had that email address for about 15 years, she had only registered hers in the past year.

I then forwarded everything onto her alternative address, and since then, nothing.🙂

Anyway, that was a rather long winded attempt at explaining what could possibly have happened to the OP. 🤣

But those two email addresses are exactly the same and both yours:

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


So she just got the email address completely wrong. It's good you forwarded them email to her alternate email address because if you took away the dot you would have just sent it to yourself 🤣

Lou76

Tokmon said:

Lou76 said:

As crazy as this may sound, it's true.

I had an issue last year whereby I was receiving loads of emails for Weightwatchers being cancelled (was getting a complex lol), order confirmations for Truprints etc .

Anyway, every one of them mentioned a NI address, I'm in Glasgow.

To be honest, I ignored them thinking it was spam.  Then I received an email from a company asking me to contact them regarding my £320 order for children's clothes.  I don't have children, or anyone of that age I would be buying for.

That's when I looked at the bottom of the email, and there was "my" contact name, address in NI, and phone number, and email. 

My email is firstname.surname1976@gmail.com

The intended recipient of the email was firstnamesurname1976@gmail.com

No dot between names.

Thankfully, as a result of the last email, I had her mobile number and phoned her to explain what had been happening.   I've had that email address for about 15 years, she had only registered hers in the past year.

I then forwarded everything onto her alternative address, and since then, nothing.🙂

Anyway, that was a rather long winded attempt at explaining what could possibly have happened to the OP. 🤣

But those two email addresses are exactly the same and both yours:

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


So she just got the email address completely wrong. It's good you forwarded them email to her alternate email address because if you took away the dot you would have just sent it to yourself 🤣

That's exactly what first happened, I emailed the order one to myself, with a huge explanation. 🤣

That's when I took the plunge, and decided to phone her.

Clearly the contact details weren't mine, just the similar email - I'm still surprised she was able to register it.

A 2 hour phone call later, I knew her entire life story. 😳

Anyway, it was clearly a genuine mistake on her part, and, apart from a restaurant reservation last week, I haven't had any more erroneous emails.

Now that I know it's a mistake, I'm almost gutted not to be getting her emails, as most of them were more interesting than my own.  Quite enjoyed fielding them. 🤭