How can someone find out my Gmail address? Need help!

Software Issues Forum
1

Hello! I recently got an email from someone I don’t want to hear from. A few years ago, I made a new Gmail account and deleted the old one to avoid this person. Now, I’m really confused about how they managed to get my new address.

Here’s what I know:

  • They only know my name and phone number.
  • I’ve blocked them on social media, WhatsApp, and their phone number.
  • My address is not visible anywhere on the internet.
  • We don’t have any common friends who could have shared my info.
  • My address isn’t tied to my name.
  • They aren’t in my contacts on phone or Gmail.
  • I only use this one email address for logging in everywhere.
  • I only receive emails from two people, neither of whom are friends with this person.

So, how did they get my new address? Please help me figure this out!

2

Try searching your phone number and name on DuckDuckGo or another search engine that doesn’t use your personal search history. See if a random search turns up your Gmail address. If you find a link, that could mean it’s public information.

3

There are many ways an email address can leak out. I recommend checking Have I Been Pwned every now and then. For instance, Change Healthcare had a big breach recently, and National Public Data leaked information on nearly three billion people.

Make sure to mark this email as spam or phishing.

4

@Alexander
I checked, and my address hasn’t been compromised.

5

Arun said:
@Alexander
I checked, and my address hasn’t been compromised.

Don’t link all your accounts together. If one gets compromised, they could access everything.

6

Arun said:
@Alexander
I checked, and my address hasn’t been compromised.

Did you check all three accounts?

7

My guess is they got it through your phone number. Some services use your phone number as a backup email recovery option. You might want to try setting a different number for recovery when creating a new email.

8

They only know your name and phone number?

Is your name and phone number tied to your Google account by any chance?

Do you use any apps where people can find you by phone number? For example, WhatsApp might do this, but you’d also see them listed on your contact list.

9

Create a completely new email address and start sending emails to the two people you get emails from. Tell them you’re deleting your old account and use the new one to keep in touch. If you get an email from the unwanted person, you’ll know who the source is. If nothing happens, try it with the second person.

10

Could be through your phone contacts.

11

Getting someone’s email address is honestly pretty easy. Just set up a filter to automatically send their email address to spam, and you won’t have to deal with them anymore.

12

It’s actually much easier to find out someone’s email than you think. Like, really easy. And unfortunately, there’s not much you can do to stop it.