What kind of junk emails are these or are they real ??

[MathWizard]

I just logged into gmail for the 1st time in maybe a year, and I see these emails, that all say they are from Microsoft Store <stremail@microsoft.com>, and they say thanks for buying a game or something, and say they billed different credit card's,  ending in a # thats not mine. And at least 2 address "me" as Jason, thats not me.

In Gmail, if I check on the email, and click "open detailed view" it says the contact details are stremail@microsoft.com

If I look up that email address, it's the MS store. So so am I missing something here, and reading a heading and not the real sender's email? Or is it actually MS sending these to my Gmail, thinking I'm someone else, or someone stole my Gmail account or something ??

The link in the email looks legit to me, hovering over it, I see what looks like it would be a MS link
https://mucp.api.account.microsoft.com/m/v2/c?r=AIAADNAD6XC3E7U34QJTN2PRLZFEEJPEYFXJE3VEANOOZIR4UK5O72PT4DKCKZWGB6KHDTCBWIIWD6IE26JTSWCFHLF6AGNW2BZ377TOEFTOH3ACOG4R7H3GNTHDGHGXMVJTJEWIKHKBQAZRAQJ7R7PNKHXK522EV475JZ4XPUI7KHLGKQVW5ZXRV2EEXEQ3HUJITIJQHXQAJP6XXP4M34SPULJOWARB6IZWMZGI4F2KGI55GQCVOQ3CTVIAUBLBBHYCROTR5BVFWZBHJTJYU5I2RCO6O4Y&d=AIAADZKHPEHZCQWIVUOPTPPNC6ZK5R6G6ERVHW2SLWRSKCZ2DR552PQLM54WXPD55UDBLJC4ECRTC3T3SFODICX7QGXXXN3U56TQWKBWW2R6ZXQWOD76GRVTXQPRDPKLRGAYHFYIBDP2RXXYHOCCWQ6OXXAZAXRTCP2LKRRGZDXDU6YVO6L7ZCBO&i=AIAACINX7U3T5TV2V44YWUR5TCDJDGAVIFWS5TWMICDWBFFGOWLTO43L7HJMBBZZLTVGL66EI7GAQAJL7VWY5RLZJH3234KWV2P5MGL6FTHR4DUGQO2NRRPBLWCLYAA6QOQOBYHZOX4XSCFGIXBFDG6XS7SIITW2RVPRFOTSEINVBAXIXD54YLLGKLOJHUFLBJGGM2VHCLYYLDL4V6GD6EZHC7JUKLOXQROGVGM7KCARKI33BLZSG5GJKFKDKLWOPEJ3I7VTKPGT227BRXNRA4SIN3HDO3I

What is that I don't really know, or have any idea why it's so long

Maybe I should go on MS's site and contact them directly and see whats up ?

[langwadt]

probably just someone who typed the wrong email address when shopping, is you email name something that others might have something similar?

[MathWizard]

no it's not common, I'll have to read them all , they go back to 2020. Check w/ MS. I kind of hate email these days, I only get junk mail, and I have a pretty tame list of sites I visit, so IDK where these places get my email address anyways.

I need to get new email, I tried blocking some ads I get from store I do use, and they send it from a few names, or IDK, I have to learn computer science just to block junk mail.

[PlainName]

I just had something similar. Logged into gmail (something I do once a decade) and there's some email from an airline with flight times and boarding info, etc. About 2 years old and I would have passed it off as spam except that it was paid for by card. Could still be phishing, but it's a reputable airline and all the links looked pukka. Went through all my cards and accounts trying to find where it was paid but didn't spot anything. Eventually noticed there was link to get a VAT invoice, so I hit that (didn't need to provide any info since it would be mailed to the same address) and it actually turned up! Problem solved: the chap had exactly the same name as me but a different snail address. Using that I could find him via google and verify he was real.

Presumably he had a slightly different gmail address. Mine is <name>@gmail and I think his was <first>m<last>@gmail. Anyway, you can imagine him telling someone his email and them thinking <name> <gmail> and putting the wrong one together. Investigating further I found perhaps 20 or so such email over the years. Of course, had I known at the time I might have tried to contact him and let him know, but with the wrong email address for him...

[hans]

I've seen e-mails for opening an Ebay account..  social media somewhere far away from here.. bank accounts.. renting a car.. getting a loan.. getting a quote for car fixing.. mobile phone subscription.. debt collector.. geesh what else.

The Ebay one was the most annoying for me. It happened like 5 years ago, and I was just about to sign up an account to order some stuff. Then this happens. I could reset the password and see what the person ordered (some clothing) to an address somewhere in India (obviously). I had the account finally closed, and asked if I could register my own new account. They said that was not possible.. they close the account but won't remove it, so I couldn't register my own Ebay account. Luckily gmail has 2 domains (gmail and googlemail), so I switched them around.

The guy who registered a loan+bank account on my account was the second most annoying, because I kept receiving e-mails over and over again (and seeing a completely different name to me, along with date of birth 01-jan-XXXX showed to malicious intent). Their customer service was **** and didn't do anything about it. Fortunately the mobile phone number was in one of those e-mails... That finally stopped it.

It's trivial to get a random "valid" e-mail address just going of the number of leaks at haveibeenpwned.com. Those databases typically circulate around somewhere on the internet, so someone could just find those databases and grab a random e-mail. I'm very surprised how many companies/websites don't actually send a verification e-mail so these things are bounced off.

Obviously it could be something as simple as a typo. I had people sending e-mails addressed to "hansi" instead of me.. it happens. But those were personal e-mails, but from a company/website.

I'd be surprised if the e-mail you received is "fake" (e.g. not from Microsoft). If you have mailbox at e.g. gmail or other modern providers, they will typically use IP blacklists and verify SPF records. Those records belong to DNS data, and contain a list of IPs that may send e-mails on behalf of that domain. Many e-mail providers will even bounce e-mails from a server that doesn't support SPF. So although it's still possible to have spam slip through SPF.. it's getting incredibly more rare.

I would probably just contact MS about it to have them figure it out. They have pretty good customer support.. in contrast to that other bank.

[MathWizard]

Yeah besides junkmail, I get a bit of phishing type scam emails, that look fake. Then sometimes I get 1 from some random girl, again my email is not anything common, so IDK what those are about, I assume it's not actually lonely woman tho LOL.

I need to get an email with my ISP so I can get some free IC's from Texas Instruments, I hope they still give out samples.

[chickenHeadKnob]

A few years back I made a test of an Email to SMS gateway provided by a  Canadian telco (Telus). Shortly there-after I  started getting many banking phishing Emails.  Some from banks which I have never used. All were Canadian banks, there are six majors. The phishers gave up after a year of me not biting.

[T3sl4co1l]

Usually if it's a phishing scam, the hyperlinks are obviously unrelated (DO NOT CLICK, only hover to see the link, or view message source to see the markup).

If it's probably legit, could well be your account has been typoed or otherwise mis-entered by someone else doing a thing.

And, I take it you don't have a credit card of that type and number, etc.?

Nothing's in Sent Items, right, or other history showing account [mis]use?

Tim