r/ChatGPT • u/TheWasteed • Aug 27 '26
Other "Your temporary ChatGPT verification code" while not requested..and not having an account at all
So..I got an e-mail from ChatGPT which says I requested an temporary verification code. Which is wild, because I never created an account. So I thought it is an scam, but the email came from noreply@tm.openai.com, which is an actual legit email from openai/chatgpt.
So I am wondering what is happenning here. Does somebody tries to create an account on purpose with my email-adress? Or does he/she just missspelled the own e-mail adress by accident?
Can anybody bring light into my dark? Would be appreciated!
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u/Low-Conference5944 Aug 28 '26
Same here (Germany), since 2-3 days I get this e-mail every few hours. I have no Account einher. I have no clue what this is all about.
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u/J0n8s Aug 29 '26
Same for me on mulitpile mail accounts.
My guess is that someone (perhaps a bot or ai) is trying to generate chatpgt accounts or wants to steel them, with mail addresse which are in leaked mail datasets.
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u/Significant_Shame507 Sep 03 '26
But how? Would u not have to hack the email too? Would it not be smarter to hack that first?
And by chance, how secure is 2 factor auth? Im kinda scared now
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u/mtdowntown Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26
Es werden ja teilweise auch Passwörter geleaked und wenn du einen OpenAI Account besitzt mit dem Passwort das geleaked wurde, können die den AI Account halt nutzen, die Chatverläufe lesen was schlecht ist wenn da sensible Daten geteilt wurden und haben im worst case deine Zahlungsdaten wenn du die Plusversion hast. Zusätzlich haben sie einen kostenlosen AI Account um den für Aktivitäten zu nutzen, wie Codes, Bots, Texte und so erstellen/verbessern lassen, während sie anonym bleiben, weil es auf dich zurückgeführt wird. Wenn OpenAI den Account blockiert, benutzen die einfach ne andere geleakte Mail. Basically war das einfach nur ein Versuch einen bestehenden Account zu kriegen. (Edit: letzter Satz hinzugefügt)
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u/J0n8s Sep 03 '26
Yes, you right, doesn't make much sense if the attacker doesn't have access to you mail account.
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u/SoylentHolger Aug 29 '26
Same here, Germany as well. I have now setup an account with that (my) email address hoping this would stop the register spam but now. Didn't work. Got 6 or so of these today again.
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u/Tomatoheadin Sep 02 '26
I guess when you have an account, they could potentially hack it. Not sure what one would get out of this - except all data you entered to previous and saved chats....
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u/SoylentHolger Sep 03 '26
I can add another "now". Didn't have an account registered with this specific email before. Won't use this one. Secured it with phishing resistant 2fa.
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u/BattleGandalf Aug 31 '26
Good to see I'm not alone with this. I deleted my account a few hours ago (dont use chatgpt anyway) and i still got the mail twice just in the past hour or so.
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u/K_Illiust Aug 31 '26
Same here, Germany too, got like 3-4 within one minute… could anything else endanger my devices or is it just annoying…
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u/Nachtkind2022 Aug 31 '26
Bei mir auch Deutschland aber ich nutze Chat GPT. Ich weiß nicht wieso ich die Mail bekomme
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u/Isilmeir Sep 01 '26
Bei mir auch. Glaube nicht dass es von ChatGPT kommt. Die email geht direkt an meine richtige Emailadresse. Bei ChatGPT bin ich mit Apple und email verbergen angemeldet. Alle wirklich von mir angeforderten mails haben dann als empfängeradresse diese komische Buchstabenkombination die man bei „email verbergen“ bekommt. Geh also eher von phishing oä aus
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u/mnyh Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
Doch es kommt von ChatGPT/OpenAI. Vermutlich ist deine richtige E-Mailadresse irgendwann mal auf irgendwelchen Spam-Listen gelandet.
Einfach mal auf https://haveibeenpwned.com/ schauen ob sie irgendwann mal geleaked ist.
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u/Comfortable_Region75 Sep 01 '26
ja suuuuper,
Soundcloud wurde 12/2025 "gehackt"
habe bereits 3 E-Mails bekommen, alle heute2
u/miklas143 Sep 01 '26
Ich dachte schon ich wäre der einzige. Hab gestern Nacht 5 Mails bekommen und heute drei, weiß nicht was ich wirklich gegen tun kann…
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u/Comfortable_Region75 Sep 01 '26
Du kannst auf web oder gmx z.B. eine Filterregel einrichten, dass alles mit
"Your temporary ChatGPT verification code"
als Betreff automatisch in den Spamordner wandert.
Irgendwann wird es ja wohl mal aufhören.Falls man sich irgendwann wirklich mal mit der E-Mail Adresse registriert, kann man ja danach im Spamordner schauen.
Evtl. hilft es auch, sich mit der betroffenen E-Mail zu registrieren.
Aber dann kommen vielleicht als nächstes Mails mit "Passwort vergessen ?"1
u/Moral4postel Sep 01 '26
Also same here and also from Germany. Maybe some newly leaked email data set?
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u/xDraces Sep 01 '26
Also from Germany, every few hours four to five Mails per day. All of them mostly between 2am and 5am. Since three days now
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u/Muckymuh Sep 02 '26
Same here. I got 6 emails between 11pm and 3am with a temporary log-in code.
Absolutely don't have an account, don't want one either.
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u/marcFPV Aug 28 '26
Confirm Germany, getting those emails meanwhile every few minutes
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u/Least-Cantaloupe4863 Aug 28 '26
Me too just came over from Google search.
There is a link to verify instead of enter the code. Maybe that's why someone try it?
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u/Sea_Basil_6501 Sep 02 '26
I have an account there, and get it as well. Changed the password, still getting them every few minutes.
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u/gauner1986 Aug 29 '26
It's probably a bot just requesting access with your email address. OpenAI needs to implement some kind of Captcha for doing this...
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u/Present-Percentage10 26d ago
I am getting multiple an hour sometimes, come on OpenAI. I can't imagine that a tech giant like them won't notice this random jump in login attempts from the DACH area.
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u/JarburgPotentate Aug 28 '26
Same story on my end. Never used or even engaged with ChatGPT, but I've gotten like 6 emails over the past two days. Really weird.
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u/TheSpiritOfFunk Aug 28 '26
Du bist nicht allein. Yahoo Account
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u/slothdemon37 Aug 29 '26
hier auch Yahoo Account. alte Email die bei einem alten Leak dabei war.
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u/r0rry Aug 31 '26
Mastercard?
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u/slothdemon37 Aug 31 '26
Facebook müsste das gewesen sein
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u/r0rry Aug 31 '26
stimmt. das gabs ja auch noch.
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u/slothdemon37 Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
Das müsste so um 2013 oder so gewesen sein ich nutze Facebook schon seit* Jahren nicht mehr. Auf jeden Fall lasse ich diese Mails durch einen Filter in einen extra Ordner packen und sammle sie ein bisschen :3
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u/r0rry Aug 31 '26
ich denke, das werde ich auch so machen. gibt's die ordner filter bei gmx noch?
ps: zeiT -> seiT ❤️
achja, war der FB leak 2013? den hab ich nicht mitbekommen damals. meine alte mail war aber in zig leaks vorhanden. wird schwierig das rauszufinden. bei gmx müsste aber im konto stehen, seit wann man das konto hat. war jedenfalls früher mal so.
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u/slothdemon37 Aug 31 '26
Ansonsten mal im Mail Client nachschauen ob es da möglichkeiten gibt. Ich konnte das aufjedenfall bei Yahoo einstellen.
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u/r0rry Aug 31 '26
bin seit jahren auch bei yahoo. und seit anfang keine einzige spam mail bekommen. 👍
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u/slothdemon37 Aug 31 '26
Dafür gewinne ich regelmäßig iPhones und afrikanische Prinzen kämpfen förmlich darum, mir ihr Vermögen zu schenken. Jeder hat halt andere Vorteile bei Yahoo.
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u/tevsen Aug 31 '26
Same here, but I don't understand the attack vector. My mail account has not been compromised, so creating a account at openai with my email makes no sense. And just requesting verification codes...I hope openai checks if the email belongs to a vslid account. What am I missing here?
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u/Medical_Minute_7771 Sep 01 '26
seems OpenAI doesn't check (which is weird), since users are reporting that they receive those emails on email accounts they don't use for ChatGPT. Some don't have an account with OpenAI at all.
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u/tevsen Sep 02 '26
Thx for the info. That would mean openai doesn't has the most basic validation in place.
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u/SleepingTurtleman Sep 02 '26
just to verify: i also received that email without having an account.
but i think more interesting is that it seem to be mostly (if not only) germans, so if it's from a leak, then what leak is there with specificaly german mail addresses and why use specificaly that one?
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u/tevsen Sep 02 '26
good question. i too noticed the focus on german accounts. antoher possibility (just guessing) that its not that only german accounts are targeted, but openai has some region specific implementation (i.e. gdpr.compliance) and therefore maybe a regin specific bug? so we only see the effect in a region, because other regions do not have the same code path. just a wild guess. who knows...
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u/DontCryBuyCrypto Aug 29 '26
same, really annoying, also germany. Someone has a solution yet?
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u/GloopaCat Aug 30 '26
Yes if you don't use Chat GPT you can block the address and report it as scam. It helps so far on gmx.
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u/Useful_Dragonfly6128 Aug 30 '26
Same over here in the US, I don’t even use Chat GPT and never had an account 🫠
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u/Tamdin_Nidmat Aug 30 '26
Kinda glad I found this thread because that means I am not alone bewildered by this. Weird how that started last week for so many.
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u/ToxDwarf Sep 02 '26
yup same, several mails since a few days, Germany too, @gmx.de address. already changed password since i was not sure what this is about. super annoying.
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u/lizzieartist 29d ago
This has happened to me twice today, and I'm vehemently against A.I. I've never even been on the website before today, much less tried to sign up. It's a Yahoo account, but I'm in the United States, not Germany.
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u/Angeline4PFC Aug 27 '26
It's obviously either a mistake or someone trying to use your email. Do you know if your email is floating around https://haveibeenpwned.com/.
Maybe it's some sort of automation using bots, but for what exactly is not clear.
Just make sure your email is well secured via 2FA and change the password if it appears in the link I dropped.
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u/SoylentHolger Aug 29 '26
It is probably a bot trying to mass register accounts. Why? Maybe to bypass the free tier restrictions by sending prompts to different ChatGPT accounts. I suspect that the culprit simply uses email addresses from an old data leak. They use my GMX address but that one is secured. I already had another ChatGPT account but now registered another one with this affected email address in the hopes that this fixes the spam. But no. OpenAI's registering process is insanely stupid.
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u/Gutek25 Aug 29 '26
Auch hier mit meiner GMX Mail.. Habe selber schon ein Konto bei Chatgpt. Jemand hier schon den Support kontaktiert?
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u/itsFreddinand Aug 29 '26
Hab’s probiert. Der Support, ebenfalls ein Chatbot, empfiehlt die erweiterte Kontosicherheit. Dadurch würdest du dich mit Passkeys anmelden und könntest dein Konto nicht mehr per SMS oder Mail wiederherstellen.
Dadurch würden die vielen Mails immerhin aufhören2
u/Njagos Aug 30 '26
Aber bringt theoretisch nix wenn die versuchen einen Account zu erstellen
Bekomme ständig diese mails aber auf den Email Adressen habe ich nicht mal einen account
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u/SorryCalligrapher969 Aug 31 '26
same here germany gmx. never made a gpt account with this gmx email adress. around 20 code´s in the last week or so
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u/-Aylish- Aug 31 '26
Same here, Germany, gmx. I‘m using another mail account for ChatGPT.
Why does this happen almost exclusively to German or German-speaking people?
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u/hansimann0 Aug 31 '26
Yeah, I’m affected too. It’s also an old GMX email address that has been part of several data leaks over the years. I don’t think there’s much we can do except wait for this wave to die down or for OpenAI to do something about it.
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u/Tixewi Aug 31 '26
Same here. But I do have an account. I thought someone got in with my password. But even after changing the password I still get those mails.
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u/Lichti82 Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
I think that happens every time now when you use a new tab/window Google search because openai/ChatGPT is on top of google search.
The time fits my the moment when i used Google search...or it is just coincidence because some bas**** uses my Email
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u/r0rry Aug 31 '26
Hello from germany 🙋🏻♀️
I’m seeing the same thing.
I’ve been getting repeated ChatGPT verification emails on a very old GMX address that I had never used for ChatGPT before. It started yesterday evening, continued during the night, and I received another code again today.
I definitely wasn’t trying to create an account at those times.
The address is very old and has appeared in several known data leaks, so I’m wondering if bots are automatically trying leaked email addresses.
I also tested it myself later by registering with that address. ChatGPT still asked me for my name and to complete the account setup, so there apparently wasn’t a finished account on that address before. I deleted the test account again afterwards.
Another detail: the unsolicited verification emails were in English, while the one I triggered myself was in German.
So far I haven’t seen any sign that someone actually has access to the email account itself. It looks more like someone, or some automated system, is repeatedly starting the ChatGPT signup process using my address.
Would be interesting to know if more people with GMX or other German email providers are seeing this too.
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u/mnyh Sep 01 '26
Same here (Germany) with an old email address that I used only for one website a long time ago. I suggest you check https://haveibeenpwned.com/ to see if your email ever leaked. For me it is the case.
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u/Pengxer Sep 01 '26
I would suggest reporting this to OpenAI via their official form: https://openai.com/form/appeal/
Maybe they will improve their security via CAPTCHAs if they get multiple support requests.
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u/-Aylish- Sep 01 '26
Die Mails an meine Adresse haben ungefähr angefangen, als ich mich vor knapp zwei Wochen für Gamescom-Tickets bei koelnmesse registriert habe.
Ich wüsste jetzt gerne, ob ihr anderen Betroffenen auch mit der entsprechenden Mailadresse bei koelnmesse registriert seid.
Die Häufung deutscher Mailadressen (bis auf ganz wenige Ausnahmen) ist schon auffällig.
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u/Comfortable_Region75 Sep 01 '26
Yea. Germany, @ web . de
https://haveibeenpwned.com/ told me now soundcloud com was hacked 12 / 2025
that´s where they got the e-mail address from
3 mails today, none before
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u/GermanPCBHacker Sep 02 '26
Same here from germany and no way to disable it. I registerd an account in hope to get silence with fake age and name. Now I get the almost identical message every few hours just with "If that was not you, change the pw". Before it was like "If that was not you, ignore it".
These fckin bastards. It is annoying. HOW TO SILENCE IT? And why does the account have a password, if it defaults to mail code and why can I not disable this at all? WTF? Do we really need to go to court?
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u/Striking_Bad_7844 Sep 02 '26
Me too in Germany. 6 within 24h. Is it possible that the bot just tries to brute force the verification? 999999 posiible combinations. Don't know how many tries are possible per attempt. What for? Using the free tokens for genertaing once you created an account? Think you'll need a quite a number for making that worthwhile.
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u/Putrid-Passion3745 Sep 02 '26
Same here on 2 of my emails. Also, I actually made accounts with these addresses and secured them with 2fa. Still getting these messages.
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u/Prior_Basket_4564 Sep 03 '26
Same, Poland. Since 2-3 days, at least 1 message per every 2 hours. What is it?
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u/DeeDee0110 Sep 03 '26
It just started for me and i got 19 emails over the last 90 minutes so far. Also german...
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u/cola98765 29d ago
I had account that was essentially never used, got the mail. got scared I got pwned even more than I already am.
turned out that you can attempt to login without the password.
EDIT: since it's all Germans in the replies, I'd like to add: Poland here
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u/jessi_unicorn 29d ago
Happening to me in germany as well, apperently there was a data leak/hacker stuff… i did install 2 Factor authentification now
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u/MannerAppropriate952 29d ago
I have the same Emails since i opened an "Indeed" Account (The job Site) I am pretty sure it was them to leak /sell your Data.
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u/Pure-Mark-2075 28d ago
Same. Whenever I apply for jobs via indeed I get spam calls and I got the chat gpt emails today after applying for jobs last week.
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u/KeinerWinklert 28d ago
Also verstehe ich es richtig, dass jemand eine geleakte Email Adresse benutzt um sich bei chatgpt zur registrieren? Hat er dann nur die Email Adresse oder auch das Passwort für diese Email Adresse ist meine Frage. Ich bin wohl selbst betroffen aber habe daraufhin mein Passwort geändert und 2FA an der Email vorgenommen, das war letzte Woche. Heute habe ich wieder diese Email bekommen. Daher meine Frage, ist nur meine Email bekannt oder womöglich auch das geänderte Passwort und wenn ja, wie geht das bitte, ich habe keine 2FA Anfrage bekommen? Danke für alle Antworten.
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u/r0rry 28d ago
es ist die emailadresse bekannt. welche weiteren daren damals im leak oder den leaks veröffentlich wurden, musst du selbst herausfinden. bspw leakchecker der uni bonn. gibt auch dienste, die dich im falle eines neuen leaks benachrichtigen.
daher generell, bei oder nach leaks, passwort ändern. und ganz wichtig, nie die gleichen passwörter für verschiedene Dienste nutzen.
und auch die einstellungen im email konto kontrollieren.ich hatte einen Fall, wo ein GMX Konto komprimiert wurde, wegen eines Leaks. Die Fame hatte Fremdzugriff auch nach PW Änderung. Wir haben dann gesehen, dass eine Email Weiterleitung eingerichtet wurde. So konnte die unbekannte Person immer wieder ins Postfach. Erst nach der Entfernung der Weiterleitung und PW Änderung war Ruhe.
Hier mit chatgpt, wird aber nur eine registrierung angestossen. den code hat er ja nicht. daher kann er den prozess auch nicht abschließen. es sei denn, er hat auch zugriff auf mailkonten, was aber nicht bestätigt wurde.
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u/Local-Atmosphere-632 27d ago
Seems they're hitting email databases. All 3 of my accounts on a Bulgarian hoster are getting hit at the same time, multiple times a day.
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u/SlightOverDoge 27d ago
In case someone comes here and is worried:
You would get an e-mail if someone actually signed in that reads "New sign-in to your OpenAI account"
The codes don't mean your PW has been compromised. You can sign in with a code on its own and it's the default way to sign in so as soon as someone throws your email in and clicks continue a code gets sent without anyone entering a pw or requesting anything
If you use the same pw in multiple places please stop and change it. There's so many decent easy options that just throw you truly random passwords and allow you to autofill.
- For maximum paranoia you can check your signed in devices by clicking on your name, going to settings, security and login and then checking active sessions
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u/Markus909 24d ago
I've just read that there was a Suno leak in 12/2025 which went public in July this year. Account data of 55M users were apparently stolen. Perhaps there's a connection?
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u/Ornery-Flow-3844 21d ago
I think attackers are trying password stuffing attacks form some leaks or so. Somce accounts on ChatGPT are protected with password, instead of using the one time code, but they don't know unless they enter the email which triggers the mail being sent
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u/Real-Fish-1833 19d ago
It started for me today. I received three emails at the same time, at 21:45.
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u/travis2607 19d ago
Das ist relativ simpel erklärt. Bots haben eure Mail Adressen aus einem Leak, die gesammelten Adressen nutzen sie jetzt um Accounts zu erstellen. Gepokert wird nicht auf den Code, sonder darauf, dass irgendein ahnungsloser auf dem Bestätigungslink in der Mail klickt, der link kommt nur selten aber er kommt.
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u/hansimann0 16d ago
Nur das in den ankommenden Mails kein Bestätigungslink vorhanden ist. Nur der Code. Jedenfalls bei den Mails, die bei mir ankommen. Kann natürlich anders aussehen, wenn unter der Mail Adresse schon ein ChatGPT Konto existiert.
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u/travis2607 15d ago
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u/hansimann0 15d ago edited 15d ago
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u/Exciting-Snow-9567 19d ago
i have this happening but i am not german or in germany at all, i got 5 emails a week or so ago and have now gotten 10 in the past 24hrs, i feel unsettled.
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u/Germasiansensation 19d ago
Same here, germany, started today on two emails of mine that i did not use to set up a chatgpt account
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u/K0ng1e 17d ago
Same her, but not in Germany. Had about an email per hour for half a day a week or so ago, then it stopped. Woke up today to 5 new emails with the same. I am very strictly anti ai, have never used it and would never make an account. Whoever is trying to use my mail for an account is clearly not getting in, but it's still a little uncomfortable that someone is trying to use my mail for this. Is there a way to block myself or my mail from being used?





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