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I recently received email from Facebook saying that:

To verify that you own abcxyz@gmail.com, please click here. You may be asked to enter this confirmation code: 32522

But my email address is abc.xyz@gmail.com. Gmail ignores dot in email address but I think Facebook does not because of which I am receiving this email. Someone, it seems, is trying to use abcxyz@gmail.com to register on Facebook.

What can I do in this case? Can someone hijack my account via this method?

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  • I keep receiving Facebook password reset emails? – Franck Dernoncourt Jan 28 '14 at 16:41
  • @FranckDernoncourt: Thanks for the link, but the question seems to be on a different trajectory. My problem stems from the fact that Gmail ignores dot in email while Facebook does not leading to these kind of mails. – Naveen Jan 28 '14 at 16:50
  • Actually, I don't think Facebook pays attention to the dot. I tried to enter my dotless Gmail address as an alternate address (my dotted address is my primary) and Facebook told me I had already registered it. – ale Jan 28 '14 at 17:34
  • @AlE.: Dug a little more and found that the mail was from email address which looked like this: notification+XXXXXXXXX@facebookmail.com. Is this spam or legitimate mail from Facebook? – Naveen Jan 28 '14 at 17:36
  • From addresses are trivially easy to spoof. More important is what is the link they want you to click. – ale Jan 28 '14 at 17:39
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It's annoying, but I don't think there's anything you can do. I also don't think there's much to worry about. Facebook will alert you if there's a change on your account.

One thing you might do is add your dotless gmail address as an alternative address on your account. That way, at least, when someone tries to sign up with it they should get a message that it's already in use.

That said, make sure you're using good, unique passwords on Facebook and especially your Google Account. Every "forgot password" mechanism out there sends a message to your confirmed email address, so if someone can get into your Gmail they can really mess with your entire life.

If it continues, you might want to open a ticket with Facebook. They might have some measures to keep this person who doesn't know their own email address from trying to inadvertently hack your account.

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  • How can I raise ticket with Facebook regarding this? Can you please share its link? – Naveen Jan 28 '14 at 17:00
  • @Naveen: I would start here: facebook.com/help/www/324203247669141 – ale Jan 28 '14 at 17:30
  • Otherwise, there's the "Report a Problem" link you get on the "gear" menu. – ale Jan 28 '14 at 17:30
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Best option: don't do anything. Someone tried to use your email to sign up for Facebook but if you don't verify the address, they will have failed.

Another nastier option, with some risks:
Click on the link. Then a little later, try to sign into Facebook with your email addy, use the forgotten password tool and hopefully get a password reset by email. Then log in to Facebook and delete the profile. (The risk is that you won't be able to do the password reset by email, so will continue to get email from Facebook for the other person.)

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  • I can't really advocate that option in case it doesn't work out for OP, but I've done that before for accounts people registered in my name – Igy Jan 28 '14 at 23:44

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