But as I was trying to express what a bad idea it was and why they needed to do more than just fix my particular issue, I realized that I shouldn't have to explain this at all. And once I started questioning if maybe I was the greater fool for thinking that they would magically sort it out once I was a customer, I just got them to stop sending me someone else's budget information and never talked to them again.
But the internet is full up of stuff like this. That's just the one that was the most memorable.
Same deal with dating websites and job search sites, I had a guy use my email to sign up for what must have been a job aggregator. I found out about 15 different websites had "10 new opportunities waiting" for me.
It boggles me that there is no double opt-in for something like your children's school attendence.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to recover and delete their account because I didn't have any of their other sign-up information. You make a good point about this action resembling a felony.
Like the credit card statements I am getting from an Indian bank with no contact apart from an international phone call to India which I will not be making. And I can tell you the default encryption passwords they use on their PDF attachments is not particularly secure.
I'm looking at you, Mint, who sent me someone else's financial data for months and months, and did not have an unsubscribe button (outside of user account preferences).
If a gamer uses my email address to sign up for a service, I'm gonna log into their account and change settings. Or once, in a mood, just delete their account (many services use email address as an identifier, so you can't use that service if someone used your preferred email address). I figure it's like someone accidentally giving out your number in a bar to get away from a creep. You just happened to lose the random digit lottery.
I'm never going to log into someone's financial system to do that. You're crossed a line from petty vigilantism (under duress) into "this is starting to resemble a felony" territory. It took ages to ask the right question of Mint support to get them to do something about it. And really, fuck anyone who puts people in this position in the first place.
If you are sending communications to a user repeatedly, you believe you have a relationship with them whether they want it or not. If you are collecting sensitive data on them, and then telegraphing it in those communications, then verify their goddamn contact information first.
Or, stop trying to have those conversations over unauthenticated channels.
[edit to add: and then there was the lonely guy who signed up for eight+ dating sites while I was in a rough patch with my partner and I had to scramble to unsubscribe lest she think I was planning my escape. Seriously dude, not cool]