Fake Experian Account

JayBee66

I am receiving emails for an Experian account that I never set up. The first name of the account holder is not mine but begins with my first initial so it was probably a guess by the fraudster. The account was set up in the US and appears to have bank accounts from Wells Fargo and Chase attached to it as I get emails with regards to money flowing in and out of those accounts.

I have tried to log in to the Experian account but the name, address, mobile etc. that Experian use for security are all different.

I don't think I have anything to worry about as my address is not known, none of my bank accounts are used and no personal details of mine are used. Also, my credit rating has not been affected.

I have contacted Experian, Wells and Chase and none seem to bothered with following it up. All fob me off with a US customer relations phone number that I won't be calling.

Why would anyone bother to use my email address (actually a slight variation with a full stop added but it still gets directed to me via Gmail) to set up an Experian and bank accounts but not my details?

Also, I get a load of genuine US political emails from various parts of the Democratic party for a woman and again the name begins with my first initial. I get genuine advertising emails from companies using her name too.

Why would anyone bother?

Does anyone else have this "problem"?

In recent years I have put all my sensitive (banking, tax, government etc.) web accounts under a long email address using random letters and numbers so that my email address cannot be guessed and so far have not had one junk/spam/phishing email for that address. It forwards to the email address based on my name. I now use full stops in that email address so I can pinpoint who is the weak link amongst my contacts. A different dot position for each contact.

Jim2007

Why would anyone bother to use my email address (actually a slight variation with a full stop added but it still gets directed to me via Gmail) to set up an Experian and bank accounts but not my details?

Probably because it is a genuine account and as you pointed out it is NOT your address, but a routing error.

All fob me off with a US customer relations phone number that I won't be calling.

This is a US banking issue and if you are not willing to make the phone call then this is where it ends. Set up a spam filter to delete the mails from that address.

JayBee66

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122699895#Comment_122699895

For the account to be verified I would have to have received a verification email. No such email was received.

As I said, Gmail allows for any number of full stops inserted into your email address and it ignores them all.

You could have an address without full stops, such as myname@gmail.com but you will receive emails sent to my.name@gmail.com or m.y.n.a.m.e@gmail.com Google regards all those email addresses as being the same.

You could set up the email address my.name@gmail.com but Google it is actually going to register myname@gmail.com as yours so you will receive all the emails without the full stop plus ones with.

As I said, I get lots of spam for Joseph and Jennifer so even corporate entities are making use of dodgy mailing lists.

I was receiving "Jennifer's" woeful school reports when she was at school, 10 years ago, and now she's moved on to bigger and badder things.

jeff bingham

I never knew that about google addresses and the dot. Interesting!

JayBee66

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122704272#Comment_122704272

Give it a test run by sending yourself some emails.

When you sign up to things online, place the dot in different places and different multiples (a bit like binary code) to identify who is the culprit, when you start getting spammed.

e.g. username@gmail.com u.sername@gmail.com us.ername@gmail.com u.s.ername@gmail.com

Also, you can use the + symbol to append your username…

e.g. username+test@gmail.com username+boards@gmail.com username+amazon@gmail.com

However, I think some websites might block the + symbol being used in registration so the dot might be the better option.

JVince

SOMETIMES its can matter.

Whilst Google don't recognise dots, logins do. So it is possible the login to their banking is the email with the dot. It could be nefarious, but it is most likely a simple error.

The account holder might have changed email to the gmail address at some point and it possibly did not require a confirmation, and as the login still works, probably doesn't even know they are not getting emails. It then possibly got saved to their auto-fill and gets entered on other places.

Wells Fargo international freephone is

00-800-95644422

Or easiest - block the sender

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. Open the message from the sender.
3. At the top right, click More (3 dots)
4. Click Block "{sender}" or Unblock "{sender}."

JayBee66

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122706987#Comment_122706987

I have never seen a website that permits you to change your email address and not confirm it by receiving an email to the new address.

Besides, in my case, the number of different websites that send me spam with two particular names in the salutation suggests this is an orchestrated attack upon those websites.

If so then Experian, Wells Fargo and Chase are not to be trusted. Nor the US Democratic Party (nothing similar from the Republicans - I am not a MAGA boy) or a variety of legitimate businesses.

All these sites were blocked long ago but we all check our bin, now and again, for stray legitimate emails. Doing so alerted me to this nefarious activity.

As I said, in my first email, none of this affects me personally as I now use a long, randomly generated, unguessable email address for sensitive accounts and use my personal email address as a virtual throwaway with the dots and + to pinpoint who or what is passing that email address to others.

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122707147#Comment_122707147

Very easy to have it inputted manually by someone with admin access on ANY site.

as for signing up to newsletter emails - you'd be surprised at how many don't look for confirmation.

As i said, if it affects you as it seems, simply block them. It will take you 30 seconds

JayBee66

As I was about to type, before you got in.

My email address is xxxxxxxx@gmail.com so for someone to "accidentally" type xxxxxx.x.x@gmail.com is VERY improbable. However, I have used that combination once before to sign up to another forum. Forums are usually the worst place to be signing up to as their security is poor and/or they are more than amenable to selling their mailing lists.

Anyway, I appear to be annoying you more than Experian annoys me so enough said.

Yggr of Asgard

Well on your next trip to the US you might get some fun with CBP because your name might have ended up on a watchlist or the IRS wants to talk to you.

I would suggest you sort it out because even if your Irish address is not used and the first name is slightly different you still might face hassle in case that let's say some of activity on the account is not legit.

JayBee66

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122710941#Comment_122710941

Read what I wrote. Neither my name nor my address was used to set up the account because Experian has the wrong name in the salutation and is insisting on a US address and mobile number to gain control of the account through password change.

The fraudster is living in the US, uses a US address, mobile and does not use my name. According to Experian their credit rating is near zero (mine is sky high!) All they use is my email address. I get the emails. They get the money. Wells Fargo, Chase and Experian get the future headaches. I'm in the clear. The fraudster moves on.

I started this thread just to poll whether others were getting similar emails. Obviously, a waste of time.

Moderator - delete the thread, if you want to!

Jim2007

Has run it course and closed at the request of the OP