this is actually weirder than i thought.
this email was sent to kickstarter:
========
hi.
i sent you something via the website form not too long ago, but i've
found this address in my other mailbox and i need to followup on the
initial request.
so, i am the rightful owner of both death.to.koalas@gmail.com &
jessicaambermurray@gmail.com, amongst other addresses. they are both
old accounts at this point, although the former actively forwards mail
to my newest account. i thought the latter did as well, but i'm
realizing that this hasn't been true for quite some time. that may be
a sign i got hacked.
i'm realizing that somebody seems to have gotten into the second
account (jessicaambermurray) around february of 2020 and tried to get
into the first account (death.to.koalas) around april of that year.
the *only* reason i'm realizing that is that they set up fake
kickstarter accounts - a strange thing for them to do. so, i'm very
curious as to any information you can provide to me regarding what was
done, apparently using my email address.
if you check your records, you'll see that i contacted you in april,
2020 about a "marge batson" using death.to.koalas@gmail.com. that's a
fake name. you concluded that they didn't have information about my
bank account, etc. ok.
but, after sorting through this older address, i see that they had
already set up a fake account in february, 2020 using this address,
and i've only deleted that account as of today. they may have removed
forwarding from the account.
so, the chronology seems to be:
- they set up a fake account using jessicaambermurray@gmail.com on
february 11, 2020. the name they used was rosalie walkner, which is a
completely fake name.
- they also set up a fake account using death.to.koalas@gmail.com on
april 29, 2020. the name they used was "marge batson", also a totally
fake name.
- my legal name is not jessica amber murray, but it is the female name
i use. i'm a transgendered person.
- i caught the second fake account almost immediately, and had it
deleted. i contacted you over the website form, and you sent me the
following email on april 30, 2020 from support@kickstarter.com (and
note that i carry on after the pasted email):
---
Your request has been updated. You can add a comment by replying to this email.
Kickstarter Trust & Safety (Kickstarter)
Apr 30, 9:42 AM EDT
Hi there,
Thanks so much for reaching out and alerting us to this activity. We
can confirm the account associated with your email address has been
deleted.
Though this account was created using your email address, rest assured
that it does not appear that any of your personal information (your
personal email account, credit card information, etc.) has been
breached.
Thanks again for notifying us of this, and please let us know if you
have any other questions or concerns.
Best regards,
Kickstarter Trust & Safety
Death.to.koalas
Apr 30, 5:00 AM EDT
hi.
i recently received a "welcome to kickstarter" email, despite the fact
that i did not sign up for kickstarter. when i realized what had
happened, i changed the password on the account (that i did not
create.), and learned that the account was unverified.
the account was created under the name "marge batson". that is not my name.
i have since deleted this account. but, i would appreciate it if you
would permanently ban this address from setting up any further sort of
account. i don't want this to happen again.
i live on disability and could not accept any money raised in this
manner, unless it has six or more zeroes.
thank you,
jessica
=======
why would somebody hack my account in order to try to set up a
kickstarter account other than to carry through an illegal transaction
and try to pin it on me? and, why would they be so insistent as to do
it twice if the outcome was benign?
so, my questions to you are as follows:
- was the account at jessicaambermurray@gmail.com (that is, this
address) ever verified? that can help me understand if the email
account was ever breached and how i ought to respond to it. if it
wasn't, i might wonder if it's more likely that somebody is trolling
me. i have a sprawling internet presence from years worth of message
board participation, and i've drawn attention to myself from places on
the internet i don't otherwise interact with.
- can you tell me if any financial transactions were ever made using
the account? i have no reason to think that my own bank account was
compromised, and actually don't use that address for financial
transactions. but, i'm concerned that somebody might have done
something shady and used my name to do it. i'm even concerned that
somebody may have raise money in my name.
- can you tell me the last time somebody logged into the account,
besides today when i deleted it? this can help me understand how
recent the breach was.
i've changed all my passwords, but i've suspected i might be being
cyberstalked for quite a while, and any help getting my head around it
would be useful.
j
=========
i've also sent the following to academia.edu:
hi.
like many people, i have a lot of old gmail accounts that i barely use, and i'm realizing that one of them, jessicaambermurray@gmail.com, may have been hacked quite some time ago, and potentially taken over by somebody. but, if so, it's very strange what they've done.
i do remember signing up for academia.edu, because i was doing research on my diet and i wanted to download a paper on flavonoids. i used this old address becuse it was my facebook account's address. i also recall reading some papers about betaine. so, i definitely set up this account, myself.
but, when i logged into the account today, i found a fake name attached to it, and it's the same fake name i found attached to a fake kickstarter account. this is suggesting that somebody with my password logged into the account i set up and filled in fake details about it. it's very hard for me to understand why somebody would do that, unless they were broadly impersonating me in multiple ways.
i have deleted this account, because i'm concerned about being hacked and it was registered under a name that is not mine. no offense to academia.org.
but, i'm wondering if you can send me a list of dates that this account was logged into, before being deleted, today. this can help me understand the nature and depth of this breach of this address.
i have changed my password, but i need to understand why somebody would do such a bizarre thing.
====
and, after i get some breakfast, i'll have to spend some time logging into old accounts and figuring out who's been in what.