Receiving emails about items I haven't looked at.

[lokidj26]

Over the last 2 days I have received emails from ebay about items I have never viewed.

The sender email is ebay@ebay.com, but there is also a 'mailed by' address of mailx1@ebay.com.

Yesterday when I got the first one, I went in and changed my password.  Then today I got another.  Both emails were about car parts which I would never look at. 

Does this look like a scam email or should I be worried?  There have been no dodgy purchases on my account.

I have also checked my account sign in activity and it only shows me on there.

Any advice much appreciated 🙂

[*sons_n_daughters* · Accepted solution]

I don't have any answers for you, but wanted to say that for the last however many years (more than 5), I've been getting regular emails from a 4WD parts seller about their newest items. I have never bought anything from them. I have never even clicked on any of their items (I don't own a 4WD!). They aren't a saved seller. I have contacted the seller and they have assured me I am not on their email list. Even ebay can't seem to stop it. 

Hopefully this is a one off for you, and you aren't going to be hounded to death for the next 20 years. For now, just delete the emails.

I will say though that it looks like a legitimate email because the blue tick is there. I don't know if the scammers have worked out how to get the blue tick yet. Regardless, never click on a link in an email, especially from ebay or PayPal. If you look in your ebay messages, in the ebay site, if the message is in there, then it's legit.

[springyzone]

I don't know either if it is a legit email from ebay or not but would delete it anyway, as I am sure you have.

But I was wondering if you normally access ebay via the phone or ipad. A strange thing happened to me yesterday. I was on my phone when my sister in law came into the room and started to talk at length about how tired she was and how worried she was about sleeplessness lately.

Just after that conversation, I logged into facebook and lo and behold, suddenly there were 3 ads inserted in between the feed and all of them were for products to help you sleep. And they have kept coming since then.

I have never looked up sleeplessness, never spoken about it, I am suspicious a lot of devices these days are not just monitoring key strokes, they are monitoring speech in the room for key words. I could be way off target but that is what I suspect, anyway.

Has anyone at all around you spoken about their car or car repairs lately?

[*sons_n_daughters*]

Springy, your devices are listening. Always. If you don't want them listening, turn them off when not in use. A month or so ago, we were sitting in the meal room at work. A couple of my colleagues were talking about the website TEMU. I'd never heard of it. Apparently it's one of those sites where you buy cheap junk. Since then, I'm hounded to death with ads for TEMU. Not just on Facebook, but other sites that show ads as well. 

Last year, I jokingly mentioned to my husband about "performance enhancing aids", and within hours, I had items like that showing up on my phone. 

Thankfully, I don't have to worry about my computer because I have adblock on all browsers, but I do have to be careful on my phone. I DO NOT want to get into a discussion at work about pr0n and then suddenly having countless ads inviting me to join adult groups!

My phone knows when I wake up. Some nights I have to have it in the room as I'm on call. Within 60 seconds of me opening my eyes, I get all sorts of notifications. News stories and whatnot. It doesn't matter if I wake at 5am or 9am. As soon as I open my eyes, the notifications start. 

Technology is scary these days.

[countessalmirena]

UmeT backwards - irritating. 

Mind you, their proliferation is certainly in part due to their having purchase / placed massive amount of ads online. I’ve never said or typed or searched for them, and they are everywhere….

However, I agree that it’s best to be careful about the possibility of passive listening. 

[springyzone]

I've heard that Temu is a Chinese company and if you download the app, it is a virtual passive spying device. I don't know if it is true but I suspect it could well be as the goods it sells are way too cheap.

I get the ads all the time on FBook and read some comments. One person said the same item (it was a small, portable, automatic washing machine for small items) was normally over $70 on other sites but $5 on Temu? Something is going on as I know a couple of others who have received clothing items and they were extremely pleased but there has to be a reason they are overly cheap. I am suspicious. I am turning into a conspiracy theorist.

As for my phone, it is rarely on me or in the same room.