# Action required to verify email change for Straight Dope Message Board **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 17, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544 "2010-12-17T19:07:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/1 "2010-12-17T19:07:17Z")
I received an email this morning concerning the subject; it includes links to a webpage and directs me to go there to verify my email address based on the statement that “since you recently changed your email address, we require you to blah, blah.” Is this for real? Because I didn’t recently change my email address. I’ve had the same email address for years. If you want me to cut and paste the message, I’ll be glad to. It looks completely genuine, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/2 "2010-12-17T20:18:32Z")
Please send me the whole thing, including the headers if you can. It’s some sort of phishing situation – you DO get an email if you have changed your email address or password but you can’t access your account unless/until you’ve triggered the url in the email. And you would know if you had changed your email address or your password. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/3 "2010-12-17T21:51:08Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > Please send me the whole thing, including the headers if you can. > > It’s some sort of phishing situation – you DO get an email if you have changed your email address or password but you can’t access your account unless/until you’ve triggered the url in the email. And you would know if you had changed your email address or your password. Would it be okay if I just cut and paste as a reply to this? ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/4 "2010-12-17T23:37:53Z")
No, please, we need the entire email. We especially need the header information – it’s probably all fake info but there’s a slight chance there’s a clue there that we can investigate and maybe find out who it is. Can you forward it to me? TubaDiva @ [aol.com](http://aol.com) ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/5 "2010-12-18T02:49:58Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > No, please, we need the entire email. We especially need the header information – it’s probably all fake info but there’s a slight chance there’s a clue there that we can investigate and maybe find out who it is. > > Can you forward it to me? TubaDiva @ [aol.com](http://aol.com) Done. It sure looks real. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/6 "2010-12-18T03:25:28Z")
Louis, this is the original email that was sent to you a year ago today. How come you’re just now seeing it? It is real – it is authentic – the email itself is one year old. > [@](#): > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Action Required to Verify Email Change for Straight Dope Message Board > \*\*Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 \*\*08:31:40 -0600 (CST) > From: Straight Dope Message Board \ (Bolding mine.) ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/7 "2010-12-18T06:48:09Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > It is real – it is authentic – the email itself is one year old. Hell of a server lag. That branch of the information superhighway must have had an accident in the center lane. Or maybe it’s a _time machine_ and you just happen to be the _future recipient_! Tripler Yeah, that’s about all I got. ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/8 "2010-12-18T06:53:42Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > Louis, this is the original email that was sent to you a year ago today. > > How come you’re just now seeing it? > > It is real – it is authentic – the email itself is one year old. > > (Bolding mine.) Are you sure? The headers you quoted can all be faked…sorry I am tired now, but the very first sent from IP address I forget teh actual header, sorry) should be from your ip address. That is the only one you can trust to be generated by your mail server. Everything else is fakeable. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/9 "2010-12-18T07:09:03Z")
> [@not\_alice](#): > > Are you sure? The headers you quoted can all be faked…sorry I am tired now, but the very first sent from IP address I forget teh actual header, sorry) should be from your ip address. That is the only one you can trust to be generated by your mail server. Everything else is fakeable. While I assumed Tuba checked that before she would say it was real, you are right that it’s easy to pre- or postdate emails. I wonder if people were just naive enough to think that no one would fake it, or if they thought the protocol would be upgraded before it was a problem, ala the Y2K bug. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/10 "2010-12-18T07:44:01Z")
Wasn’t there a thread in IMHO recently about time-travel of a year or so? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/11 "2010-12-18T07:50:22Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Wasn’t there a thread in IMHO recently about time-travel of a year or so? There will be. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/12 "2010-12-18T08:27:10Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I wonder if people were just naive enough to think that no one would fake it, or if they thought the protocol would be upgraded before it was a problem, ala the Y2K bug. Who the heck thought that some day everyone and their dog would be using the _internet_ to send electronic mail? In 1990, a common expectation was that the full-on GUI applications like CompuServe and America Online were going to push “university” implementations of networks (and their software standards and protocols) aside. As home users, it was easy to get online with CS or AOL (or Prodigy, GEnie, etc etc) but for the most part if you wanted the literal actual no-kidding internet you needed [Kermit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_(protocol)) or a similar terminal program to connect to your college’s mainframe. Then you’d be typing arcane commands at the command line. There was no world wide web, or at least not that any of us had heard of. And when we _did_ see it, it was plain text with links you clicked on that took you elsewhere, no search engines to find things… AOL and CS and etc had icons, they weren’t all text-based, you didn’t have to know geeky things like bang paths and line feeds and how to BinHex or UUEncode your file attachment then FTP it as a 7 bit ASCII string and append it to your email message body from the mainframe’s command line. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/13 "2010-12-18T09:16:30Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > There will be. Heh. You made that joke next time, too. I’ll still laugh ever time I heard it. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/14 "2010-12-18T11:25:01Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > Louis, this is the original email that was sent to you a year ago today. > > How come you’re just now seeing it? > > It is real – it is authentic – the email itself is one year old. > > (Bolding mine.) I have no idea why it showed up in my IN box but it did. Is there a chance that it was accidentally re-sent on your end? That email address is the only one I use and I check it daily. Mail that I want to keep goes into folders; junk main and/or republican glurge gets deleted as do all the sickening xmassy stuff I’m flooded with. I have no answer. I didn’t notice the date. Oh, well, another senior moment goes by. I think the senior moments are lining up and waiting for a chance; more and more of them are beginning to happen. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/15 "2010-12-18T14:15:35Z")
Sometimes things are just a mystery. Is it Groundhog Day? ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/16 "2010-12-18T15:38:49Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > Sometimes things are just a mystery. > > Is it Groundhog Day? Might as well be. My ex-Darling Marcie, when she was about fourteen, ran away from home with a couple of other girls. That town in PA where the groundhog lives was as far as they got before running out of money. They checked into a hotel and the hotel, of course, called the cops; the cops called her father, and that was the end of the runaway----I still smile when I’m reminded of the groundhog----I can’t begin to spell the name of the town and it doesn’t matter anyway. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/17 "2010-12-18T15:44:58Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > Sometimes things are just a mystery. > > Is it Groundhog Day? We’ll know [del]tomorrow[/del] today again. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/18 "2010-12-18T15:55:29Z")
Well, you know what they said, yesterday is today’s tomorrow. Or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/action-required-to-verify-email-change-for-straight-dope-message-board/564544/19 "2010-12-18T20:26:22Z")
Many years ago, we had a problem with a mail server that would occasionally spool an incoming message and would then forget about it. Since most incoming messages actually reached their destination, no one really knew it was having a problem until many months later, when it finally completely filled up its disk and promptly crashed. Once they got it sorted out, all of the spooled messages were finally delivered. Hundreds and hundreds of e-mail messages, many of them several months old, all went out in one day. The sysadmins did at least send out an explanation first before flooding everyone’s inbox with old undelivered e-mails. So yeah, stuff happens on occasion.