Fraudulent website account

[aabikrman]

I posted this initially in the wrong forum, but here goes again.  Is it possible for a website profile/account to migrate from one website to a new or different website ?  Reason I ask is that I just deleted an account on an internet dating website that I'm almost positive I never created.  Problem is that my girlfriend thinks I was active on this site and I wasn't.  There's a slim, very slim possibility that I created the account/profile but I sure don't remember doing so.  This website is not my "speed" and I wouldn't have been attracted to it to begin with.  Nevertheless, I did try internet dating several years ago and haven't been active in well over three years so yes, accounts were created that's all in the past, pre-girlfriend.  She doesn't think so, but that's a different issue.  I do remember continuing to receive "phishing" emails to my old screen names for about a year or so after ending my foray into internet dating, but they for the most part have all disappeared except for the one in question and one more that's recently started to show up again (yahoo).  Is there a logical explanation for getting messages from a site I never belonged too ?  Also, do internet dating sites commonly maintain deleted profiles or account info, and if so, is that legal to do ?

[Geek-9pm]

Welcome to CH.

The internet is open to everyone. And is full of Fraud, deception...
and C**p worse than what you could imagine. 

You could try to contact the administrator of the sire, but if you do not remember your password and user name you will not get far.

[evilfantasy]

Some (fraudulent) adult dating sites do things like copy a Yahoo/Facebook/Myspace profile onto their site, picture and all, and use them to look like they have a bunch of users.

As Geek-9pm said. It's the internet...

[EEVIAC]

There's a slim, very slim possibility that I created the account/profile but I sure don't remember doing so. 

If you were able to delete the account, you were probably the one who created it.  Maybe you were drunk when you created it and just don't remember  

[aabikrman]

Thanks for the replies and possibilities.  I still don't think I created the account/profile mainly because it wasn't the kind of website I would even look at let alone create an account in.  I was able to delete the account because when you followed the link back from the phishing email, the account was already logged in.  I didn't have to use an account name or password to gain access to the account since the account was already open.   Since the account was already open and I saw the "account" tab, I clicked on it and that took me to a page that allowed me to delete the account.  I know I've not used the website and I've never been billed by the website, I check my credit card statements every month, so the whole thing is bizarre from my perspective.  Hopefully, my deleting the account will stop the phishing emails but I'm mildly skeptical.  I'm a little concerned about the possibility of identity theft.  Hopefully, this is just a case of a website creating an account/profile from my earlier internet dating forays.  But the part I don't understand is how did they get my email unless it was maybe a website that was renamed/changed/recreated and the "new" website is initially populated with old/previous accounts/profiles    

[evilfantasy]

Someone got your email.
Someone set up a fake account.
Someone sent you a bogus email, you followed the link.
Someone was phishing.

Don't click on spam links in spam emails and never enter any personal information on a website like that.

Edit: P.S. That's my theory. I could be totally wrong.

[Geek-9pm]

You did the right thing.
And now may be a good time to review you Credit cards. You may want to close some and start new ones. Or ask for a new number.

Here is an I dean I got from my daughter. You can buy a debit card that is as good as a credit card for most on-line transactions. Use it to limit the damage that a fraudulent site could do.

And never, never give out back account information unless it is a special account you have set up the will not allow overdraft and never has more that $200 or whatever you would spend at one time.

It happens.

[EEVIAC]

Edit: P.S. That's my theory. I could be totally wrong.

I'd bet that some people have actually tried to pull off this kind of thing.. I'm certainly glad I came across this thread