Recently received email from PF. is it spam?

  • Thread starter Thread starter curiouschris
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AI Thread Summary
A user received a suspicious email from a Gmail account regarding account confirmation for Physics Forums, despite not registering recently. The email contained a user ID and a broken link, raising concerns about potential spam attempts to activate accounts under false pretenses. The confusion stemmed from the email addressing a number instead of a name, leading to speculation about the legitimacy of the message. An admin was requested to investigate the matter or simply discard the email. The discussion highlights the need for caution regarding unsolicited emails and the risks of spam in online forums.
curiouschris
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An odd one

I just got this email

I never registered recently and would have ignored it except it was sent from a gmail account (supposedly, although it seems legit) and the registered name was a number

I wondered if perhaps it was an attempt to spam physics forum by getting victims to unintentionally approve a new account by clicking the provided link

As I am not a victim I won't play that game

Can an Admin check into this.

Or just ditch it

CC

Code: 
From - Wed Sep 16 09:34:13 2009
X-Account-Key: account2
X-UIDL: 1233032143-9226
X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
X-Mozilla-Keys:                                                                                 
Return-path: <gregbernhardt(youknowwhat)gmail.com>
Envelope-to: ***************
Delivery-date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:20:18 +0930
Received: from 74.86.251.146-static.reverse.softlayer.com ([74.86.251.146] helo=pf2.physicsforums.com)
	by ************** with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256)
	(Exim 4.69)
	(envelope-from <gregbernhardt(youknowwhat)gmail.com>)
	id 1Mnhmr-0006hG-9q
	for ***************; Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:20:18 +0930
Received: from nobody by pf2.physicsforums.com with local (Exim 4.69)
	(envelope-from <gregbernhardt(youknowwhat)gmail.com>)
	id 1Mnhmq-0007J4-Et
	for ************; Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:50:16 -0500
To: ************
Subject: Physicsforums.com Confirmation Email
From: "gregbernhardt(youknowwhat)gmail.com" <gregbernhardt(youknowwhat)gmail.com>
Message-ID: <20090915235016.8ff36232bf47@www.physicsforums.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Priority: 3
X-Mailer: vBulletin Mail via PHP
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:50:16 -0500
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - pf2.physicsforums.com
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - **************
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [99 99] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - gmail.com
X-ACL-Warn: spf checking being performed 74.86.251.146 from gmail.com [neutral]
X-Spam-Score: -1.7 (-)
X-SPF-comment: spf comment is -  
X-SPF-received: spf received was 
X-SPF-result: result of spf checks 

Hello 134039,

You still need to confirm this email to enable your physicsforums.com account.   This will allow you to start posting!

Just follow this link and you are all set.
[PLAIN]https://www.physicsforums.com/register.php?a=act&u=134[/PLAIN]  039&i=1545 8175

thanks,
Greg
PF CEO

P.S. the link is deliberately broken in case a bot tries to follow it. don't want a bad bot from registering do we.
Nice robots.txt by the way mind if I use it?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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The account awaiting confirmation is:

https://www.physicsforums.com/member.php?u=134039

I guess the e-mail confirmation went a little late.
 
Is developerchri not an account of yours?
 
LOL a little late is an understatement

If the account is for developerchri which was a misspelling and the reason why I never approved it, then why was the email sent to "134039"

Had it said "Hello developerchri" I would have immediately known what it was and ignored it. and wondered why it was at least 6 months late.

Very confusingCC
 
Same join date...I'm guessing there was some confusion when you signed up. Somehow, though, the system just got around to reminding you to activate the account.
 
134039 is the user ID of that account on the vbulletin software the forum uses.
 
Problem solved.

Although its possibly a way for spammers to get accounts activated under pseudonyms. apart from heaping the blame for spam on innocent people I can't see its use, so probably just my wild imagination at work again :)

CC
 
It reminds me I must ask a few questions on PF. There are some things that are worrying me. Particularly with time dilation.

There doesn't seem to be enough of it at present and I am not getting my work done.

Thanks guys

CC
 

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