Where did all my posts go?
So I went to go sign in today and it gave me either 1 of 2 errors(see below). I dumped my cookies and tried a different browser and PC and still the same. Waited about 20mins and now I can login norm...
Forum Discussion
what was the source of that quote?
From a email I got from Cox. Not sure what it referred to.
Were all of your posts available before the error signing in?
I believe so but I can't remember specifically checking.
You may have just had the bad luck to sign in at the wrong time.
Nahh, I don't think so. Too many things line up to make me feel someone is messing with me. First the email from Cox about the change to the email on my profile. Then the notifications in forum about being marked for spam (my profile) and finally being unable to login and having my posts deleted.
BTW, here is the email I got about a month ago. Looks legit to me but Cox said it was a scam but I don't think they researched it that well. Keep in mind I don't actually have a active Cox account so I don't know how someone changed the email notification on a inactive account. The reason it looks legit to me is the spelling and grammar look good and it tells you to check your bill for a number. A scammer would tell you to go to a website or call a certain phone number I would think. I have modified the account holders name and email address for privacy reasons.
| Subject: | Important account information from Cox Communications |
|---|---|
| From: | COX COMMUNICATIONS <COXCOM.SERVICE@COX.COM> |
| To: | XXXXXXXXXXXX |
DEAR <Account holder>;
PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL AS IT IS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED
This is a courtesy notification to you that the following information for your Cox Communications
account was changed through our online system:
*A change occurred to the email address you have selected for these
notifications.
If you did not authorize the change(s) to your account, please contact your local Cox Communications
office immediately. A phone number can be obtained from your bill.
Please have your four-digit Cox Personal Identification Number (PIN) ready to discuss questions
regarding your account with a Customer Service Representative. Your personal identification number
can be found on the first page of your monthly Cox billing statement above the "Account Summary"
section.
If this is correct, please maintain this correspondence for your records.
Thank you,
Cox Communications
Looks legit to me
A moderator had previously confirmed the email is legit.
https://forums.cox.com/forum_home/internet_forum/f/internet-forum/17516/phishing-email
What's weird about the email to you is...other than your Forum account...you don't have a Cox account.
As I was researching the SMTP in the Forum, I came across a similar situation. The OP suggested...for security reasons...any change to any database (account, Forum, perhaps webmail) prompts a generic notification to the user, such as, "If you didn't make these changes, contact...blah, blah, blah."
i wouldn't suspect you made any changes to your Forum account. Besides, there is no where in the Forum to change or even view your SMTP. Did you call or email Cox or any reason prior to receiving the above email?
If so, somebody added your SMTP into something...perhaps a marketing database.
If not, Cox changed something somewhere to have affected your Forum account. For the OP, everything resolved within 24 hours. However, OP had a Cox subscription. You don't so something is in limbo.
It's hard to discern if you were actually flagged by a user or not.
Did you call or email Cox or any reason prior to receiving the above email?
No. It was out of the blue.
What I think happened is the person behind all this changed my email notification because they were hoping I wouldn't get notification of what there were doing. However the timing doesn't line up. Seems weird that someone would make that change and then wait a couple weeks to do anything else. Maybe they were seeing if any red flags were raised?
But you can't make any changes to email notifications in the Forum. This had came up before in the Forum...perhaps with Curt...but somebody wanted to view or change their SMTP but it isn't listed anywhere in the Settings.
This appears to have coincided with the new ads in Webmail. Although you don't have a Webmail account, it appears somebody is initiating a source of revenue with marketing. Perhaps Cox and the 3rd-party had an agreement after a time to start a marketing campaign with any available SMTP addresses. This is a stab in the dark but plausible.
Also, I remember you had posted a link for a survey. Perhaps a user thought this violated some Forum policy.
I don't think anything malicious is going on...other than keeping us in the dark.
First the email from Cox about the change to the email on my profile.
The reason it looks legit to me is the spelling and grammar look good and it tells you to check your bill for a number.
I don't think I knew about that email. If you posted about it when it was received, I must have missed it. That type of email is legit, but the verbiage has been posted in the forums and could have been copied from there.
There are a couple of places to enter an email address in the forums profile. Mine are both blank. You might check your profile to verify yours are blank too.
I just checked and both places for email are blank. Thanks for the tip though. As for the username I use to sign in with, I assume only a moderator could look that up.
I noticed Cox escalated your issue to include their vendor a day after you asked for a status update. That's a good thing. But they apparently didn't record it in their tracking system. Someone will just have to remember to follow-up when nothing happens. It will probably have to be you.
