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A comment on Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username across 400 social networks. Parent comment

Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by d3VwsX on Thursday December 26, 2024 @06:50AM (#42514682)
I have a somewhat common [email protected] and others with the same name use it pretty often. Surprisingly often it seems as if sites allow accounts to exist without email confirmation. I estimate at least 50% of the accounts out there that use my gmail is actually not me, and I like the idea of anyone trying to make sense of that data, if they can even guess that I am the Firstname Lastname that the address belongs to.
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Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by 112233 on Thursday December 26, 2024 @10:42AM (#42515827)
Where I am, it is official government agencies that seem to not verify email (and send me sensitive documents meant for others with the same name — a chore to call and ask them to correct their stuff regularly, sigh)

Any comercial sites - dating, gambling etc. end with verification attempts

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Re:Sherlock: Hunt down social media accounts by username acr... by quaddo on Thursday December 26, 2024 @02:22PM (#42517121)
I’m in a similar situation and hadn’t thought of it that way. My take on the email I receive is that they fall into one of these categories: a) genuinely intended for me (and not spam), b) spam, c) genuinely intended case of mistaken address (they forgot to include another character), d) someone using mine as their throwaway (site sending verification email), and e) someone using mine as their throwaway (no verification process, ergo not altogether different from spam).
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