Ask HN: What is the scam here (random email from dating site)?
On 12/09, I received one from CoffeeMeetBagel addressed to "Michael" (but using my email). I've never heard of this site and certainly I am far removed from the dating scene.
It was curious, but I checked my Gmail activity log and there was nothing suspicious; all IPs match my location.
Then today, I received another one from Match addressed to "John".
Again, there's no odd activity for my Gmail account and no confirmation email from either of these platforms.
I'm wondering if this is happening in anyone else's inbox and what the motive is? Why use a random person's email to register accounts on dating sites? Are there other signs I should look for for signals of compromise? What's the scam here?
The origin emails look legit as do the target URLs in the email.
7 comments
[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 18.9 ms ] threadAs to what game they are playing, it's probably just a poorly configured or broken spam script. Assume malfeasance, report them, block them and ignore. If you are feeling adventurous, create a throw away email, wipe all cookies and contact the "company" they are spamming but do not give them your email address or name ... but I would not expect to learn anything.
[1] - https://support.google.com/mail/answer/29436?hl=en
[2] - https://www.spamcop.net/anonsignup.shtml
You may with to edit your comment to remove the headers all together as they are legit headers from Match.
It did not used to for the initial account creation and that is likely all they need. They create a fake profile and put links to some malicious site or other shenanigans that affect Match users. The scam does not actually involve you at all. They will not be able to have a paid account unless something changed but they likely do not need it. There are other things that could be going on but then I would be at risk of defaming people running the site and that's a much longer story. All I can legally say is that you should just block anything coming from them unless you plan on being one of their members.
Now if on the other hand you see something from their company on your credit card statement, get your bank and the Federal government involved and not the state of Texas but I do not expect that to happen. Let the feds engage the state. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. There is nothing more I can add to this.