Why being careless with email is a bad idea

Richard M · 12-07-2010, 23:28

This just dropped into my Gmail inbox.
Not my public one that I use for forums like this, but the private one that Google gave to me when I worked for them.

Code:

Property #: 	08002
Rental Unit #: 	0343
Account #: 	11817849
Tenant Name: 	
	Robert Mahoney
Address: 	(REMOVED) N Hayden Rd Apt (REMOVED)
	Scottsdale, AZ 85258
Balance As Of 07/10/2010: 	$106.94
The following is information regarding your charges for rental term 08/01/2010 to 08/31/2010:
 
Rent: 	$81.00
Rent Tax: 	$1.74
Insurance: 	$8.00
Current Balance: 	$197.68
As a reminder, rent is due on the first of every month. Remitting payment upon receipt of this email invoice can help you avoid a late fee.
If the information above reflects a past due balance and you have already submitted payment, please disregard that portion of the balance.
As of the date of this invoice, your last payment in the amount of $106.94 was received on 06/20/2010.

If I was evil, I could send a reply along the lines of:

Quote:

Hey, just cancel this.
I have no requirement for the storage anymore.
Anything in the property you can discard.

danielf · 12-07-2010, 23:41

Some would argue that posting your real name on a public forum isn't very smart either

Richard M · 12-07-2010, 23:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by danielf

Some would argue that posting your real name on a public forum isn't very smart either

Indeed: http://www.reghardware.com/2010/07/07/wow_forums/

Luckily my name is common and because I've been careful that you'd need to get to the 20th page or so in Google until you actually found anything about me (and a 17 year old school picture at that).

rounz · 07-09-2010, 23:00

id wipe off the account numbers and the zip codes aswell, your censorship of the address is flawed by the rest, too much info..

as for trouble, locate property owner, using your clues, email them via sendmail off tor, spoof headers, they assume its you = oh dear

Lord Nikon · 08-09-2010, 02:43

And I just found 4 people that match that information, and can get full background reports on them, one of whom is the director of a semiconductor company.