Hey, everyone! I'm in a bit of a confusing situation and could really use some advice. My dad has this old Hotmail email account, and he received a message from Google saying that it will be terminated due to inactivity over the past couple of years. The catch here is that this is not a Gmail account! He somehow added his Hotmail address to the Gmail app, and that's where the termination warning came through.
The email about the deletion is in Portuguese, and I've checked his Outlook app where that same message is present, indicating that the account could be deleted soon. I'm willing to share a screenshot and translate the email if anyone thinks that would help.
Has anyone experienced something like this before? Any insights on what steps to take would be appreciated!
4 Answers
This might be related to an outdated Google account linked with the Hotmail address. Avoid clicking any links. If you can, try accessing the Hotmail account directly through an incognito browser and see if there are any alerts there. If everything checks out, it might be safe to ignore it.
That sounds super sketchy! It might be a scam email, so make sure your dad doesn't click any links in it just to be safe. It’s best to double-check instead of just assuming it’s legit.
Is there a way to verify who sent the email? I tried looking at the sender and it just shows 'Google' without any details.
Is his Hotmail set up as a recovery email for any Gmail accounts? Typically, Google sends out warnings to both primary and recovery emails if they see inactivity. It’s worth logging into both types of accounts to check.
I don't think it is a recovery email, but I will investigate that further. The email specifically states that it’s the Hotmail account at risk.
I'm not completely sure, but it sounds like his Hotmail might be linked to an old Google account as a backup. Google could be trying to notify him that the account is at risk of deletion. It might be a good idea to log in to both accounts and see if there are any alerts or account settings he needs to update.
That's strange though because the Hotmail email is active and used regularly! Plus, he even pays for extra cloud storage using that address.
That’s what’s been bothering me! We got the notification via the Gmail app using his Hotmail account. We saw it on Outlook too. This isn't the first time he's received such an email!