My mom almost lost her Facebook account because of a burner email I never knew about

I was helping her clear old notifications last Sunday and found a password reset email from two days ago sent to some hotmail address she stopped using in 2009. If I hadn't spotted it, someone would have locked her out for good and probably scammed her friends. has anyone else found old accounts hiding recovery options like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

leo_black761mo ago

Did you check if that old email was the account recovery option for her other stuff too?

paulw531mo ago

@patricia262 that old AOL account is probably the recovery email for half her accounts. Those 20 year old email addresses are always the master key to everything. If you can get into the AOL account, you might be able to reset passwords for the other stuff without needing to remember them. Just be careful not to get locked out of the recovery account while trying to change everything.

patricia2621mo agoMost Upvoted

Checked my mother-in-law's old email account and found it was still linked to everything from her Netflix to her online banking. @leo_black76 you're absolutely right but now I'm stuck trying to remember the password to a 20 year old AOL account just to sort out her grocery delivery app. Good luck to me.