How secure is an email account?

[foxy lady 10]

At the weekend I decided that I needed to change one of my email accounts that is linked to Facebook.

 

I found a web based ISP and signed up for an email account. I was very pleased because it was a great address. (my first name ***@****.com)

 

So far so good. I got an account confirmation. I also sent myself emails and everything was working fine. Then I tried to change my Facebook email and got an error message saying that my email was already registered on Facebook. Sure enough I did a search and found a lady in Scotland with the same email address.

 

Since then I have received a series of email obviously intended for the other person.

 

This can't be good.

[Andy 10]

It could just be that, for example, her email address is [email protected] and yours is [email protected], or name @whatever.co.uk - slightly different, and she's just typed it in wrong?

[Guest]

Entirely possible they entered it wrong as Andy said. I occasionally got emails for someone with a very similar email address on gmail.

[dmh79 10]

Yeah, the .com/.co.uk thing is worth checking. I had someone trying to set up a bebo account using my email address (*****@hotmail.com) and kept receiving the confirmation emails. I sent an email to *****@hotmail.co.uk asking if it was them and sure enough it was!

So its worth checking that you inputted the right end part to your email address when changing it on Facebook as this is the only way it could happen. This because when you sign up to Facebook or make email address changes they need to be confirmed via an email that is sent to you.

There is no possible way that you could both have exactly the same email address with the same password to access it as you would receive both yours and their emails.

[scarby 10]

I think if an account isn't accessed within a certain amount of time, it gets closed. It's possible that the scottish lady *had* it, but then didn't bother to use it after a while.

 

And then you set the same one up.........

[dmh79 10]

I think if an account isn't accessed within a certain amount of time, it gets closed. It's possible that the scottish lady *had* it, but then didn't bother to use it after a while.

 

And then you set the same one up.........

It wouldn't have been closed if she has a facebook account associated with it. She would have still been receiving notifications and her facebook account would have been closed if the email address was closed first.

[paul689 10]

try a new one at live .com

[zongamin 10]

try a new one at live .com

 

NO!!!

 

just get a new gmail one!

[zongamin 10]

 

Since then I have received a series of email obviously intended for the other person.

 

This can't be good.

 

She probably just has a similar address to you - nothing to be alarmed about.

 

eg if you are [email protected] and she is [email protected] - nothing you can do apart from let the sender know they have it wrong.