Spinoff - smart home - Alexa

[DualvansMommy]

I didn't know you could see a text of everything Alexa recorded. I just looked up all recordings for that day and the several before that day, and there is no record of anything besides a bunch or normal stuff and tons of "alexa stop" messages

This is really weird. We have service plan with pest company, and they showed up once a day earlier than scheduled. We just put it down as mistake on their end with calendar, but I wonder cuz DH do reference that company name whenever he comments I need to schedule them a visit or call them. That would be the only thing I can think of how your dryer guy showed up. I told DH all the more reason to not use voice and just sign language around our echo and dots in the household. It’s mostly just the kids requesting weather report, music requests, adding items to shopping list and funnies. Boys dots acts as their alarms and reminders.


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[khm]

The email used was not random letters. I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was something like [email protected]. I don't remember the exact words, but they were vulgar and intentional. The name on the order was meant to sound like an Asian name, but it was phonetically curse words. Again, definitely not random.

The address was correct. When DH called the repair company back to get more info, they definitely had our address. It was 100% intentional.

Oh, wow, so sorry! That's not what I was imagining at all!! I pictured it was more like one of those kind of hidden dedicated email addresses like you get with Evernote or your Kindle, where it's like used to basically email yourself information to an app/device.

Sounds like you are doing all you can with updating network passwords and discontinuing the Alexa devices, etc. Make sure your camera system is locked down. Does every individual camera have a password to connect to the wifi? The smart TVs have privacy locked up. Printers too.

Make sure your app passwords are updated too, your camera's cloud account, Google Drive, online calendars, if your car has an app, Life360, etc.

Honestly, it might be worth having some sort of network professional come have a look and see if they could poke holes in your system - software and hardware? An IT friend or coworker, just for a bit of peace of mind. If someone is "in" your electronic life they might understand the most vulnerable points in the typical household and be able to plug that hole.

[zukeypur]

Sounds like you are doing all you can with updating network passwords and discontinuing the Alexa devices, etc. Make sure your camera system is locked down. Does every individual camera have a password to connect to the wifi? The smart TVs have privacy locked up. Printers too.

Make sure your app passwords are updated too, your camera's cloud account, Google Drive, online calendars, if your car has an app, Life360, etc.

Honestly, it might be worth having some sort of network professional come have a look and see if they could poke holes in your system - software and hardware? An IT friend or coworker, just for a bit of peace of mind. If someone is "in" your electronic life they might understand the most vulnerable points in the typical household and be able to plug that hole.

The cameras, doorbell, and alarm are all Ring, so the wifi password has to be entered when you set each new device up on the system. I just realized I forgot to update the doorbell chime, so no one has heard the doorbell in the past few weeks, lol.

I haven't updated the passwords on the apps; that's a good idea. I'll make sure I do that today. Still, the ring cameras are all outside, so I don't think that would be the issue.

I truly think the echo was the issue. There is nothing else in the house that "listens" to us, except maybe the phones.

We do have recurring pest control and sprinkler upkeep, but those are scheduled over text (pest) or phone (sprinkler), and both services showed up when scheduled. Our housekeeper comes once a month, but she doesn't use the dryer and wasn't here in the 3 weeks prior to the incident.

As mentioned before, this is an appliance service that we have never used, would never use (not in our town), was booked with a horrible email address and racist name, and no one ever discussed the screaming dryer in the house. It did make an obvious horrible noise that would have been able to be heard over a listening device and possibly outside, but the cameras never caught anyone close enough to the house to hear the noise. DD's friends never come over, and most of them don't even know where we live. I have thought of the possibility of one of her friends pulling a prank, but I checked her phone and there were no messages mentioning the dryer, and she said that the only person she mentioned it to was me. She doesn't talk on the phone, so none of her friends could have heard it. It's also not something I think her friends would do. DD3 doesn't talk, so I didn't bother checking her phone. DD1 never came over to do laundry during that time period, and was not here while anyone else was doing laundry.

[candaceb]

I also would consider the fact that it was entirely a coincidence that you needed a dryer repair and the guy showed up without an appointment. Repair places are so busy and short staffed right now, I wouldn't think they have any incentive to show up at a house without an appointment and risk the person not being there. Around here at least, there's a minimum couple of weeks wait for someone to come check out the problem before they even attempt to fix it or order a part.
Last year we had a day when Critter Control showed up at our door to check out the problem reported of squirrels in our attic. I was at work. DH is completely clueless about everything including anything he has been told and said "OK" and then texted me. I told him they had the wrong house and I had not called Critter Control and he would most definitely know if there were squirrels in the attic because they would have heard me screaming from the next town over. He then texts me and says "can you call me so we can figure this out?". I said no, they made a mistake, they have the wrong address, it is their problem to deal with, I'm at work. The guys got off the roof and reported to DH that our roof looks great and there is no sign of animal intrusions. He told them that his wife said they have the wrong information, they went back out to the truck and called the office, and found out that someone had reversed address numbers.

We have Alexa in every room in our house and use it for all of our shopping lists.

[essnce629]

I also would consider the fact that it was entirely a coincidence that you needed a dryer repair and the guy showed up without an appointment. Repair places are so busy and short staffed right now, I wouldn't think they have any incentive to show up at a house without an appointment and risk the person not being there. Around here at least, there's a minimum couple of weeks wait for someone to come check out the problem before they even attempt to fix it or order a part.
Last year we had a day when Critter Control showed up at our door to check out the problem reported of squirrels in our attic. I was at work. DH is completely clueless about everything including anything he has been told and said "OK" and then texted me. I told him they had the wrong house and I had not called Critter Control and he would most definitely know if there were squirrels in the attic because they would have heard me screaming from the next town over. He then texts me and says "can you call me so we can figure this out?". I said no, they made a mistake, they have the wrong address, it is their problem to deal with, I'm at work. The guys got off the roof and reported to DH that our roof looks great and there is no sign of animal intrusions. He told them that his wife said they have the wrong information, they went back out to the truck and called the office, and found out that someone had reversed address numbers.

We have Alexa in every room in our house and use it for all of our shopping lists.

I would also think that a coincidence is most likely, especially if there's nothing in your Alexa history about the dryer. We've had lots of people show up at our house with the wrong address, packages delivered that are our neighbors, etc. Once I even had a dryer delivery for our house and the delivery truck pulled up and took the dryer to our next door neighbors. I went out and said they had the wrong house, but our neighbors just happened to be getting a new dryer from the same company the exact same day!

We have 6 Alexa devices in our house (each bedroom, master bath, and kitchen) and have never had any issues. My neighbor keeps his on mute since he doesn't like the listening aspect.

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[khm]

As mentioned before, this is an appliance service that we have never used, would never use (not in our town), was booked with a horrible email address and racist name

Yeah, the racist name stuff is suuuuuuuper troubling. Like, targeted and disgusting.

I just worry that it might not be Alexa-related at all, so keep your radar up even though Alexa is gone.

Someone might have just filled out a form online for reasons known only to themselves (like sending an errant repair guy out for what reason? who knows? it's such a circuitous way to.... call you a racist name?!) and just got lucky that your dryer really was acting up. It's all just very weird and I hope you find an explanation!!

[petesgirl]

Yeah, the racist name stuff is suuuuuuuper troubling. Like, targeted and disgusting.

I just worry that it might not be Alexa-related at all, so keep your radar up even though Alexa is gone.

Someone might have just filled out a form online for reasons known only to themselves (like sending an errant repair guy out for what reason? who knows? it's such a circuitous way to.... call you a racist name?!) and just got lucky that your dryer really was acting up. It's all just very weird and I hope you find an explanation!!

This is what I'm wondering too...if someone was just being a jerk and did on purpose, without knowing your dryer really was in need of repair.