General Security Question

[m1lk3y]

Hey y'all, not sure where this belongs, or if it even has a place but I was looking to get some second opinions. I woke up this morning to an email from Facebook with a password reset code, on an email that has never been associated with anything for Meta. The Facebook account that I DO have and use for Messenger, is currently deactivated and is on a completely different email, but I did get an email there oddly enough. As far as I can tell, the email is legit as it came from "security@facebookmail.com", but it's also been so long since I've gotten an email from them I'm not 100%. I didn't click any of the email links other than the "Didn't request a new password" button, and I have since reset that emails password just in case. Any other ideas or suggestions on what to do would be awesome! Thanks in advance

[m1lk3y]

Upon more inspection, I have since Logged in to my old facebook account, changed the password, and found out that indeed I was wrong and I did attach that other email to the account forever ago. Just gonna change the account password and deactivate again. Guess I just freaked out a bit

 

Edit: tried to change the password but Facebook won't let me because I'm "trying too often" well this is annoying

Edited December 31, 2023 by m1lk3y

[m1lk3y]

7 minutes ago, AWFordJr said:

Delete Facebook,

https://facebook.com/help/delete_account

 

If your interested. You can always make a new one in the future after its gone. It takes 30 days now to get rid of one though sadly. I hate most social media with a passion but some people cant live without their fake friends.

This is my immediate plan now. But unfortunately Facebook is not letting me delete the account. It says "Sorry this feature isn't available right now"

[Eigenvektor]

39 minutes ago, m1lk3y said:

As far as I can tell, the email is legit as it came from "security@facebookmail.com",

It's fairly easy to fake "from" in an email, so that doesn't necessarily mean its legit

[m1lk3y]

3 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

It's fairly easy to fake "from" in an email, so that doesn't necessarily mean its legit

Unfortunately it came from the same email address that was sent when I reactivated my account. Someone was trying to reset my password last night, and because of that, Facebook won't let me delete my account. So if they try again tonight who knows what'll happen

[Eigenvektor]

Just now, m1lk3y said:

Unfortunately it came from the same email address that was sent when I reactivated my account.

As I said, an email address can be easily faked. So on its own the email address you see in your mail client doesn't prove anything. In other words: Don't click on any links in that email, be sure to visit Facebook by opening the browser and manually typing the URL.

 

Quote

Someone was trying to reset my password last night, and because of that, Facebook won't let me delete my account. So if they try again tonight who knows what'll happen

You'll get another email asking to confirm that you were the one to trigger the password change. Eventually Facebook might block the IP of whoever is trying to do so.

[m1lk3y]

16 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Don't click on any links in that email, be sure to visit Facebook by opening the browser and manually typing the URL.

Yeah this is what I did. Just playing a waiting game at this point. Thanks!

[HenrySalayne]

Password reset requests can likely be triggered by spelling errors. Receiving one unintentionally shouldn't trigger a panic attack on your end.

[cooky560]

If you didn't expect a password reset e-mail, just delete and ignore it. No-one is in your account, if they have tried to reset your password it's because they had no way in. 

 

If you are really worried, login directly at the site (without clicking any links in any emails) and change your password, this never hurts and ensures you retain access to your accounts.

 

If you're worried someone has access to your email address and that they've left a password reset email in your inbox trying access something else, then you can also change your email password (This is unlikely, but again costs nothing)

[m1lk3y]

19 hours ago, HenrySalayne said:

Password reset requests can likely be triggered by spelling errors. Receiving one unintentionally shouldn't trigger a panic attack on your end.

 

16 hours ago, cooky560 said:

If you didn't expect a password reset e-mail, just delete and ignore it. No-one is in your account, if they have tried to reset your password it's because they had no way in. 

 

If you are really worried, login directly at the site (without clicking any links in any emails) and change your password, this never hurts and ensures you retain access to your accounts.

 

If you're worried someone has access to your email address and that they've left a password reset email in your inbox trying access something else, then you can also change your email password (This is unlikely, but again costs nothing)

Yeah, the biggest reason I freaked out was because I haven't needed to log in for multiple years, since messenger stays logged in on my phone and my account stays permanently deactivated, and when I did log in to my account, it wasn't letting me change my password because I had been trying too much, even though I hadn't tried at all yet. Turned out just to be an issue with a browser extension that I had. I have since changed passwords for all email and accounts associated with my facebook account just in case, and I was probably due for a change anyway. Thanks for the input y'all!