A traveler describes returning to the U.S. after a multi-country trip that ended in Germany and, within a week, receiving a single German-language email to a Fastmail address they have had for ten years but never used in any web form and which had previously received zero inbound mail. The raw message headers confirm it was addressed to that unique inbox; the user generally creates context-based addresses and on-the-fly aliases but did not do so for this address. The account has not seen any further mail to that address. The sender line and content look like a transactional Amazon SES verification message and include German-language address details and a UID/tax-id-style number. The recipient did not click any links.
Device and connectivity details: the traveler used a Verizon-locked iPhone 17 with a Verizon international add-on while abroad and keeps very few apps installed apart from the iOS Fastmail app and a handful of small open-source apps. The poster finds the timing and specificity suspicious and asks what could have caused the leak or exposure of that particular, hard-to-guess address after the trip.
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