Account registration: What can happen if I enter false information?

Today we shed some light on the importance of:
 

1. Contact data for password recovery
2. Personal data for identity verification
3. Updating your personal data (and how to do it)
4. mail.com’s data privacy policy
5. Your account security checklist

Why does mail.com want my address?

Today we will clear up the mystery of what we use your contact information for – and why you shouldn’t simply enter a fake address or date of birth.

Let’s say you need to send an important email, but when you try to log into your mail.com account, you realize you’ve forgotten your password. It must be one of those days! But now what do you do?

The fastest way to reset your mail.com password

To make it easier to recover your password, when you register we ask for a contact email address. It can be the address of an account with another provider – the important thing is that it’s a different address than the mail.com account in question. You also have the option of saving a cell phone number. If you have chosen one of these options, we can send a code to the email address or phone number – which you can then use to log into your account and reset your password. This can be done in a matter of minutes without having to ask customer support.

But what happens if you’ve deleted that other email account or have a new cell phone number but didn’t update your account settings with your new contact information? Or never entered this information at all? Then you only have one option for getting back into your account: contacting customer support.

Your personal data can protect you

To confirm your identity in such cases, you’ll need to answer a few personal questions. No, nothing embarrassing! But we might ask you to give us part of your postal address, like the name of your street or town. Plus your date of birth. Or if you have an older account and saved a security question back when you set it up, you might be asked to answer it. Having you answer such questions is the only way we can be certain that you are who you say you are. After we’ve verified your identity, we can ask you to provide a contact email address and send you a link so you can reset your password.

What happens if you haven’t filled in this information in the personal settings? To put it bluntly, we have no way of knowing if you are who you say you are. The person who contacted us with a support request could instead be a hacker or a stalker pretending to be you. In the interests of data privacy and security – in other words, for your own protection – it is essential that we verify the identity of the person who has contacted us before giving them access to your email account. If you entered Micky Mouse as your name, 01/01/2001 as your date of birth and 123 Main Street as your address, it is unlikely that this identity verification process will be successful.

So as you can see, entering real personal data gives you an added layer of protection in case you ever have to contact customer support. And for this to work, it’s important that you give us your real name, address and date of birth.

How do I update my personal data?

It’s easy to keep your personal data up to date. Log in to your mail.com account in your web browser and in the left navigation menu of the Home tab, click My Account. Alternatively, in the mail.com mobile app go to the Settings menu and tap My Account. To view and update the personal data saved in your account:

1. Go to Personal Data
2. Select Profile to view your name, gender and date of birth. Make any desired changes, and confirm by clicking Save Changes
3. Select Address to view your residential address. Make any desired changes, and confirm by clicking Save Changes

Will mail.com share my contact information?

At the end of the day, of course it’s your decision what information you give us. However, we do strongly recommend that you enter your postal address and, most importantly, an up-to-date contact email address and cell phone number. You can rest assured that we will never use this information for any other purpose or share it with third parties. So give your account the protection it deserves – and make life easier for yourself the next time you’re having one of those days.
   
Now you know the role that up-to-date personal data plays in the security of your mail.com account! If you found this helpful, please give us a thumbs-up below.

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