Got this email today

[CharlesV]

Yup.. the bad actors are getting trickier and trickier! (And are using AI now too!)

[thomasl]

Actually @thomasl I think you have a great question. The wording on that email sound fishy enough to possibly be a phish attempt!

Nope. Microsoft has my email address because I designated it as my emergency contact info for those instances when I get locked out of my one Win 11 computer because Microsoft has decided my pin is no longer valid. It's happened a couple of times in the last 18 months and probably because I only boot it up around income tax time.

No, you're misunderstanding my question. I did not for one second think this was a phishing attempt. Rather I didn't understand how MS could say "Your xxxxxxxxx@gmail.com personal account has been unused for two years". I take it that just means you used that gmail account to create the OneDrive account? Poor wording indeed.

@fan_of_LTS Yes, that drives me crazy as well. The world would be a slightly safer place if we could all create our own specific usernames instead of having to give 'em a more or less generic email addy. Well, perhaps next time the universe comes round...

[j2mcgreg]

@thomasl

The 'xxxxxxxxx' is just a spacer. I didn't think that it would be prudent to reveal my real email address in a forum like this.

[thomasl]

Yup.. the bad actors are getting trickier and trickier! (And are using AI now too!)

A couple months ago I asked chatGPT how many chemical elements are liquids at room temp. It listed 8, among others Gallium (melts at 29.76C). So we can safely assume that ChatGPT lives in a pretty hot room.
(This blooper has been rectified now.)

I've had a few more run-ins about Early Flemish Art (having just returned from a couple weeks in Belgium)... its answers were often wrong but the funny thing was, when I would point out the error, chatGPT would readily admit that it was indeed wrong and that the facts are such and such.

[Eadwine Rose]

I wouldn't have revealed the email address that mine went to either. Also a lesser known address. :)

[thomasl]

@thomasl

The 'xxxxxxxxx' is just a spacer. I didn't think that it would be prudent to reveal my real email address in a forum like this.

Of course. What made me "nervous" wasn't the x+ part but the gmail.com part.

[Eadwine Rose]

Mine is also a gmail part.

People can be cautious, but being afraid of everything that cries wolf is overdoing it