Random autofill [closed]

Question

I was trying to pay for something just now, and when I put my name in the chrome autofill came up and I clicked it. The address that showed up was wrong though but corresponded to the postcode of one of my university's campuses and a random address. But I'm not on that campus, it also listed my correct phone number. Would it be possible for someone to remotely access my computer and sign up for things and leave that behind?

What steps should I take next to protect myself in case?

Has my identity been stolen?

Answer 1

We can't give a definitive answer from the info you've given. That said, I wouldn't worry. Most identity theft attacks wouldn't type things into your Chrome browser. Once an attacker can type things into your browser, there are better attacks (eg: stealing financial info) than identity theft that they can perform.

Most likely, this is a problem with auto fill or something. I find junk addresses in my Chrome auto fill all the time. It's a hassle, but not evidence of something bad having happened.

Answer 2

What steps should I take next to protect myself in case?

If you're really concerned that someone might be using your google account on a different Chrome (which would result in Chrome syncing their autofills to your Chrome), make sure you have 2-Factor Authentication enabled for your Google account.

You can also set a "Sync Pass-phrase" for your Chrome browser sync settings (preferably not the same as your Google password). This way, even if someone gets your google account to log into a brand new Chrome browser, they still won't be able to sync your bookmarks, history, autofill, etc. without that passphrase.

Has my identity been stolen?

Probably not. It's most likely just an error in how other websites' forms have been set up with auto-fill. Quite often websites will auto-fill data that has nothing to do with the current form because some web developer doesn't know how <form> and <input> works.