Weird e-mail... reply or not.

[JLRodgers]

This is the strangest thing ever.... I got an e-mail yesterday to my direct business e-mail account (I'm the only employee of the company, and it's possible they used a contact form on the website).

Now other than this would be the first message I've ever received from the online form (really! the company site is for all the "companies" under it, so it's mainly general info, and links to the primary sites), the entire e-mail is bizzare, and makes me wonder if it's a legit thing or not. If it's a new way to see if e-mails are valid (get a reply = person reads it, so then the spam will commence), I don't want to reply... but if it is legitimate I do want to send a message!

Anyway... I got the message below (all names altered -- but close to what they really are)


From e-mail address name: Roach Kayak Cane

Greetings,

I would like to end my subscription. I never use the site, and am tired of paying the membership fee.

The following information was sent to me by ccbill when I first subscribed on 11/1/07:

Your new subscription identification number is: {account number}
Your membership access information is:
Username for your subscription: {random characters}
Password for your subscription: {random characters}

I attempted to log in using the username and password above, but was unable to do so.

Please assist me in ending my subscription.

Thank you,

Rich Queen



Now here's why I'm wondering what others think.... My company doesn't have any subscription services -- and we don't even use ccbill (our "dating" site is even free). And the company name is so unusual that a person wouldn't find it by accident. I even checked all the registration tables and he hasn't even registered for any of our sites.

So given that... do you think it's a legitimate e-mail that somehow instead of going to site X he managed to bash his head on the keyboard and stumble upon our site by accident --- or is it some new "verify e-mail before sending spam" thing?

[Eric the Grey]

I would say sit on it for now. If this is a legit email, the person may send you another mail asking why you haven't replied back to them.

I agree with Mae here. Wait and see if you get another email. Chances are that it's lgit though. ccbil.coml seems to be the kind of site that specializes in fraudulent (or at least shady) means of withdrawing money from people's accounts. See this for more information (http://www.ripoffreport.com/searchresults.asp?submit22=Search+All+The+Latest+R ip-Off+Reports+Now!&q1=ALL&q2=&q3=&q4=&q5=ccbill.com&q6=&q7=&searchtype=0)...


:cool: Eric the Grey

[JLRodgers]

Yeah... that whole thing of sending a username/password thing is a bit weird -- I guess I'm just used to the number of people who do that. If I need the username, they don't give it, but that's another thing altogether.

I was thinking of just sitting on it for a while... actually I'm kind of doing that now as normally I reply as soon as I get a message.... guess I'll find out - thanks :)

[BookstoreEscapee]

I did a (very quick) search on Snopes to see if this was a common email gathering scam. Didn't find anything, though that doesn't necessarily mean it's not.