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Pleasehelpgramma's avatar
Pleasehelpgramma
Explorer | Level 4
2 months ago

Email from no-reply@dropbox.com claiming that I deleted over 32,000 files. Possible scam?

Hi- I received an email from no-reply@dropbox.com claiming that I deleted over 32,000 files and I have until November 3rd to recover them.
My query is two fold -
1 is this legit ? I did not delete any files but is it possible something went wrong? Or is this simply a scam …
2 it is a little scary to me because just two days ago I offloaded a lot of content on my computer to Dropbox … could this be related? Is a hacker somehow tracking my Dropbox activity and is targeting me?
If anyone has any suggestions as to what I should do with the email, I’d very much appreciate that. And no, I did not click the link in the email.

This is what the email says and is followed by a link. Also, in my iPhone it says “this is part of a mailing list”

You recently deleted 32289 files from your Dropbox account. If you want these files back, you can still restore them until 11/3/2024. After that, they’ll be permanently deleted.

These are the files you deleted:

  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

    Pleasehelpgramma wrote:
    is this legit ? I did not delete any files but is it possible something went wrong?

    Yes, it's probably legit, but only you can determine that by looking at the details of the email. Who it's really sent, the address that the links point to, attachments if any, etc.

     

    Did you rename any large folders recently? This can sometimes trigger a file deletion notification if Dropbox doesn't sync fast enough. Basically, you rename FolderA to FolderB. All Dropbox is told is that FolderA is gone (deletion) and FolderB was added.

     


    Is a hacker somehow tracking my Dropbox activity and is targeting me?

    No one can track your activity in Dropbox. That's not to say that you haven't been hacked. If you reuse the same credentials across websites and someone gained access to your password elsewhere, they could use it and your email address to sign in as you and take over the account. Make sure you're not reusing passwords across different services, and that you enable two-step verification on your account to protect it.

    • Pleasehelpgramma's avatar
      Pleasehelpgramma
      Explorer | Level 4
      This is a very helpful response! Thank you! I did just upload a bunch of files and rename / move them around / put lots of files in a single file. So that does make sense.
      Would you recommend clicking the link and or signing into my Dropbox and checking if my files are there?
      • Rich's avatar
        Rich
        Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

        Pleasehelpgramma wrote:
        Would you recommend clicking the link and or signing into my Dropbox and checking if my files are there?

        HOVER over the link, do not click it, and your mail client should show you where it leads to. If it's Dropbox, you're likely safe. Or you can just sign in to your account on Dropbox.com.