tail chasing

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

I've just had an email from STMicroelectronics thanking me for changing my details, and if it wasn't me to contact them. Well it wasn't me, so I try to contact them, which entails logging in, but my password doesn't work anymore presumably because someone has changed it. The only alternative is to phone the USA, and that isn't going to happen. Just replying to their email comes up with marketing.automation@st.com, and I'll bet they don't monitor that one. I thought it was only UK civil service who didn't think things through

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Use the 'forgot password' link on their login page?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Or assume it's a scam and ignore

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

Duncan

If you used the REPLY box on the original email to login to your account you have given your login details to the scammer if it was a phishing mail..

Emgee

Edited By Emgee on 07/12/2021 19:54:00

[GavlarParticipant @gavlar]

Do you have an account with STM microelectronics?

If not, then it is a scam. If yes and you used a link in the original email, then it's a scam as Emgee has explained.

If you have passed your details to a fake site, particularly if you use only one password for multiple sites, like many do, then change your other passwords, now!

If you do have an account with STM microelectronics and they have your credit card details, might be worth contacting your card company and canceling the card.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

I've had one too. I have an account with STM, which enables me to use their mbed development environment for Nucleo. They don't have any financial details.

The source looks genuine – I think it's a mistake.

Dave

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Just had a second email from stm, seems they screwed up and sent message in error. My password on stm was unique 

Edited By duncan webster on 07/12/2021 21:28:55

[Anonymous]

You weren't the only one Duncan. I went through that same sequence too. I believe all their "members" did. Apparently they were re-vamping their website – not very well it seems.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

This may be mere coincidence … but I wonder if the various ‘Information Commissioners’ have prompted them to tidy-up the databases:

A recent eMail from Sony Europe reads …

____________

Dear Michael,

Thanks very much for being a My Sony account holder.

We delete the accounts of inactive customers, in accordance with data protection laws. We see that you have not recently engaged with us. If you don’t click the link, login to your account, or take any further action with Sony Europe B.V. by 20/12/21, your MySony account and the information associated to it will be deleted.

Simply click here if you want to keep your MySony account.

If you are OK with the deletion of your My Sony account, no further action is needed from you.

Best wishes,
Sony Europe B.V.
______________

Different style, but maybe the same underlying ‘process’

MichaelG.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Had another email explaining the first was a mistake. Panic over!

Dave

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Hmmm.

Makes me wonder about an e-post this morning supposedly from "no-reply [at] dropbox.com" , starting "Dear Nigel"  (a bit familiar for a business correspondence, isn't it?) and notifying it will be up-dating its Ts and Cs.

Who?

It did look horribly genuine and the View Source tool suggested innocence, but suspicious, I investigated by Google to find Dropbox is a genuine company.

Only… it is a company I have never used.

Delete!

Edited By Nigel Graham 2 on 08/12/2021 18:09:54

[Anonymous]

Dropbox is the (Google) site for file transfers.

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

“Dropbox is the (Google) site for file transfers” – very conveniently it saves you the bother of keeping the advertisers up to date with your thinking.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Thank you for explaining it, Peter, Frances.

So Dropbox is a commercial tool for data-harvesters, advertising-agencies and company publicity departments?

Since I have never used Dropbox and can have no possible use for it, and the message bore an over-friendly personal salutation, I suspect a very clever copy-scam. I hauled it out by the scruff of its C++ neck from the deletions folder, and subjected it to, "Mark as spam and block sender".

Or was the missive genuinely Google, perhaps trying to verify me to aid it selling my Internet details? If so it will be interesting to see if they try asking again in some other way.

After all, it must be very valuable to Prada in Nevada knowing my on-line purchase of 1/4-inch BSW nuts from ACME Screws in Accrington.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Follow-up.

I examined the Drop-box web-site, found a text-contact tool and reported the matter. The help technician was surprised but grateful and apologetic. It might genuinely have been from them by some error, I suppose.

Although Dropbox does seem primarily intended for business users having to archive and exchange large numbers of files, it does mention home use as well.

[Anonymous]

Posted by Nigel Graham 2 on 08/12/2021 19:20:02:

Although Dropbox does seem primarily intended for business users having to archive and exchange large numbers of files, it does mention home use as well.

It's quite commonly used by "home users" to exchange large (and not so large) files. I imagine a few people here have used it when someone has requested a copy of an article or somesuch. (At one time, we'd just put it into a zip file and attach it to an email but few, if any, email providers allow that these days – and it was never good for large files).

Edited By Peter Greene on 08/12/2021 22:34:11

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