Well. It looks like I have nothiong to worry about, since I accepted the advice that the Disavow link was safe.

But I'd say it was a bit more than a wobbly. It looks like there could be a nice hole in the wall there.

I'll go and delete that "source" post I think. In case it was something innocent.

Just to confirm, you have now changed your Google password and run virus scans?

Edited by Oliver341 (Thu 04-Oct-12 22:51:26)

Nope?

You think someone has cracked it? I'm sure if some evil was intended it would have happened. But OK ...
... Done!

I think I can put this, and me, to bed now.

Thanks to all. I'll be back with it if it happens again.

I was just going to check again but it's gone now.

Email #1 shows someone trying to add your email address to their Google account

Email #2 suggested the email address was validated, and this can only be done by logging into your email inbox.

Is this how you see it?

Actually, validating an email address doesn't trigger an email.

The second email was triggered by someone signing up to Gmail, and putting your email address as their existing email.

Both legitimate emails, both benign, caused by someone fooling about. Confusing, but, I too don't believe you've been hacked.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

So I try to log into the gmail one and the Forgotten password page, when given name1@mydomain says

No account found with that email address.

Then I tried to log into name1@mydomain. Same result.

It was an @GMail a/c that was being created not your @mydomain. You should try logging into Google and GMail using [email protected], I think it was.

I'm sure your PC's not compromised.

What I think likely happened was that someone out there loved yourdomain so much that they tried to register it as a domain. When they were told it was already taken they chose a slight variation of it, as you do, yourdomain1 say.

Later they opened Gmail and Google a/c's, but forgetting they didn't have the domain they really wanted, they gave yourdomain as their existing email addy, hence the 2nd msg you received. A few secs later they tried to add yourdomain to their Google a/c, hence the 1st msg. Both msgs were pukka Google notifications, just that this other user used yourdomain by mistake.

You could always send [email protected] an email telling him off that yourdomain is your copyright .

Edited by XRaySpeX (Fri 05-Oct-12 13:25:13)

Uh uh! I'm not that daft, though my thoughts may have been invalid .

I was trying your suggestion of feigning a forgotten password.

I tried two things, both shown in that quote.

Logging in with the gmail address, I have to supply an email address to send the password reset to. That email address has to be present on the gmail account. The confirmation email could not have been sent unless it were. That was the first thing I tried.

The second thing was based on, IIRC from the relevant screens,that to log into your account you can use one of your alternative email addresses, not just your primary one. So to log into my google account, my primary is xxxx@mydomain. I don't have a secondary. But if there is really an account somewhere with pika..@mydomain as a primary or secondary login, I should have been able to get to the lost password reset stage.

In case it was a genuine mistake by someone, I think you should remove your very close and easily worked out post of the email address in question . That's one of the reasons I deleted the "source" post when that was pointed out to me.

I did run a full system scan the night of the main discussion. Just a few tracking cookies.

I don't think your analysis of the transaction history accounts for the immediacy of the confirmation email! I pointed this out a few times, and I think there's only been one suggestion, which I think I had already made myself. That is that someone has gained access to my mail hosting account. But there is more than one way into that, and it all seems to be running smoothly at the moment.

I shall probably be checking it out. Yesterday was traumatic for other reasons.

What is appalling is the total opaqueness of google's contact procedure. This should have been a simple support request to find out what is going on. There is no way to do anything with any probablility of a response. You even get a flat statement you aren't even going to get an auto-response that the problem report has been recorded, with a reference number!

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 05-Oct-12 09:05:10)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

That is that someone has gained access to my mail hosting account.

Neither of the two emails you received would require access to your mail hosting account.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I don't think your analysis of the transaction history accounts for the immediacy of the confirmation email!

I would've thought quite the reverse! Creation of a Google a/c is very much linked with creation of a Gmail a/c; indeed the former is nested within the latter. Remember you only have a Google a/c which does not require a Gmail a/c, unlike the reverse. The confirmation mail, the 2nd one, was confirmation of creation of the Gmail a/c, not confirmation of adding a secondary email addy to the Google a/c, the 1st email. So they are not related in that manner. Anyway Internet packet switching does not guarantee order of arrival of msgs will be in same order of sending, nor at the same intervals.

By now the other person has probably realised his mistake and corrected it by replacing your domain by his domain.

P.S. One of your earlier posts still has his Gmail addy in full, but it is no longer editable.