Private Email & identity theft

[1.] PeerJ Computer Science: https://peerj.com/

Communication: Invitation to review a manuscript sent to my personal Gmail address.

Source indicated by the organization: After I requested clarification,
the Publisher informed me that the reviewer who had suggested my name had obtained
my Gmail address from a publicly available presentation hosted on ResearchGate.

Follow-up: After receiving this explanation, I updated the ResearchGate presentation so that it no longer contained my personal Gmail address.
I also informed the Publisher that I had already left academia and asked that
this be taken into account in future communications.

Current status: The organization identified the source from which my Gmail address had been obtained. No further correspondence was necessary.

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[2.] Industrial Artificial Intelligence (Springer Nature): www.springernature.com

Communication: Invitation to serve as a Guest Editor for a Special Issue entitled Interpretable and Explainable Artificial Intelligence, sent to my personal Gmail address.

Source indicated by the organization: None. In the correspondence available to me, no explanation was provided regarding how my personal Gmail address had been obtained.

Follow-up: I exercised my right to request information regarding the source of my personal email address and asked whether it had been shared with any other parties.

Current status: Based on the correspondence available to me, no substantive response identifying the source of my Gmail address or addressing my request for information was received.

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[3.] Applied Sciences (MDPI): https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/ – Special Issue Invitation (September 2024)

Communication: Invitation to submit a manuscript to the Special Issue Impacts of
Climate Change on Ecosystems, sent to my personal Gmail address.

Source indicated by the organization: The organization stated that my email address
had been obtained through the creation of a scientific profile, either via prior interaction
with its platform or through a related academic network. It further stated
that such profiles were created externally rather than by the journal itself.

Follow-up: I requested clarification regarding the specific scientific profile,
the prior interaction, or the related academic network through which my Gmail address had been obtained.

Current status: The organization replied that it would investigate the matter
and provide further details. Based on the correspondence available to me,
no further clarification identifying the specific source of my Gmail address
was subsequently received.

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[4.] Journal of Lifestyle and SDGs Review: https://sdgsreview.org/LifestyleJournal

Communication: Invitation to submit a manuscript based on my contribution to the
44th Annual Meeting of the Council on Forest Engineering / 54th International Symposium on Forest Mechanization
(FORMEC) https://www.formec.org/.
The invitation was sent to my personal Gmail address.

Source indicated by the organization: The Editorial Team stated that my Gmail address
had been found in the publicly available conference proceedings associated with the cited publication.

Follow-up: I explained that the conference publication itself listed only my former
institutional email address and that the Gmail address originated from an earlier conference
presentation containing an unintended typographical inclusion. I also explained that,
following my resignation from academia, I had become concerned about the repeated
use of my personal contact details.

Current status: The Editorial Team apologized for the unsolicited communication,
confirmed that my Gmail address would be removed from its database, and stated that
I would not receive further messages from the journal.

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[5.] Journal of Financial Innovation (Springer Nature): www.springernature.com

Communication: Invitation relating to peer review.
Source indicated by the organization: A *deleted* ResearchGate-hosted publication.
Follow-up: After I explained that the cited ResearchGate document had already been
replaced by a version that no longer contained my Gmail address,
the precise path by which that version had been located and my Gmail address obtained
remained unclear based on the correspondence available to me.

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[6.] Agriculture (MDPI): https://www.mdpi.com/journal/agriculture/special_issues/O7FH7P6004

Communication: Invitation to submit a manuscript to the Special Issue Cutting-Edge
Technology in Agricultural Robotics: Sensing and Actuation, sent to my personal Gmail address.

Source indicated by the organization: None. No inquiry regarding the source
of my Gmail address was made in this case.

Follow-up: I referred the sender to my publicly available professional statement
explaining that I had left academia and requested that I not be contacted again.

Current status: No further correspondence followed.

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[7.] Applied Sciences (MDPI): https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/ – Journal Invitation (December 2024)

Communication: Invitation to submit a review article or research paper to the journal
Applied Sciences, sent to my personal Gmail address.

Source indicated by the organization: None. No inquiry regarding the source of my Gmail
address was made in this case.

Follow-up: I referred the sender to my publicly available professional statement
explaining that I had left academia and requested that no further academic communications
be sent to my personal Gmail address.

Current status: No further correspondence followed.

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[8.] Lambert Academic Publishing: https://lap-publishing.com/

Communication: Publication invitation.
Source indicated by the organization: A *deleted* ResearchGate-hosted publication.
Follow-up: After I explained that the cited ResearchGate document had already been
replaced by a version that no longer contained my Gmail address,
the precise path by which that version had been located and my Gmail address obtained
remained unclear based on the correspondence available to me.

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[9.] Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/artificial-intelligence

Communication: Invitation to contribute an article to the Research Topic Robust and Secure AI
Systems for Learning from Heterogeneous Data, sent to my personal Gmail address.

Source indicated by the organization: None. In the correspondence available to me,
no explanation was provided regarding how my personal Gmail address had been obtained.

Follow-up: I requested information regarding the source of my personal Gmail address
under the GDPR and referred the sender to my publicly available professional statement
explaining that I had left academia and no longer participated in academic reviewing or publishing activities.

Current status: Based on the correspondence available to me, no response identifying
the source of my Gmail address was received. In a subsequent and separate correspondence
with Frontiers, I requested the deletion of my personal data from their systems,
and that request was completed.

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[10.] International Skin Imaging Collaboration (ISIC): https://workshop.isic-archive.com/2025/

Communication: Announcement and Call for Papers for the Tenth ISIC Skin Image Analysis Workshop
@ MICCAI 2025, sent to my personal Gmail address.
Source indicated by the organization: ISIC stated that my Gmail address had been subscribed
to its mailing list on 16 March 2020 through registration on the ISIC Challenge website.
The organization further stated that my personal data had not been shared with third parties
beyond ISIC and its mailing list provider.

Follow-up: I requested information under the GDPR regarding the origin of my email address.
After receiving ISIC’s explanation, I asked whether the original registration or confirmation
email from March 2020 could be provided, as I did not recall the registration and did not
retain a corresponding confirmation email in my records.

Current status: ISIC confirmed that my unsubscription request had been processed successfully
and stated that no further workshop announcements would be sent to my Gmail address.
Based on the correspondence available to me, no further response regarding the requested
registration or confirmation email was received.

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[11.] MDPI – Applied Sciences: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/sections/mechanical_engineering

Communication: Promotional email highlighting recently published papers in the Mechanical Engineering
section of Applied Sciences, sent to my personal Gmail address.

Response: I requested information under the GDPR regarding the source from which my personal Gmail
address had been obtained and whether my personal data had been shared with any third parties.

Follow-up: As no substantive explanation had been received regarding an earlier GDPR
inquiry concerning my personal email address, I contacted the sender again after receiving
another promotional email from the same journal. I reiterated my request for clarification
regarding the source of my email address and referred to my publicly available statement
indicating that I no longer participate in academic publishing or peer review.

Current status: Based on the correspondence available to me, I did not receive a response
identifying the source from which my personal Gmail address had been obtained.

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[12.] IEEE CAMSAP 2025 Workshop: https://camsap25.ig.umons.ac.be/

Communication: Call for Papers and Special Sessions for the IEEE Workshop on Computational Advances
in Multi-Sensor Adaptive Processing (CAMSAP 2025), sent to my personal Gmail address.

Response: I requested information under the GDPR regarding the source from which my personal
Gmail address had been obtained and whether my personal data had been shared with any third parties.
I also referred the sender to my publicly available professional statement indicating that
I no longer participate in academic publishing, peer review, or workshops.

Current status: Based on the correspondence available to me, I did not receive a response
identifying the source of my personal Gmail address or addressing my GDPR request.

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[13.] International Seven Journal of Multidisciplinary (Seven Publicações Ltda.): https://www.sevenpubli.com/nossa-equipe

Communication: Invitation to republish my already published research paper
“On the Application of Machine Learning Models for Prediction and Explainable,
Actionable Insights Supporting Forest Workers Safety” in the International
Seven Journal of Multidisciplinary, sent to my personal Gmail address.

Source indicated by the organization: The organization initially stated that
the invitation was based on indexed works from academic events, databases,
or public repositories. After I requested clarification, it further explained
that my email address had been obtained from publicly available sources such as
author lists from scientific events, conference proceedings, institutional repositories,
and indexed publications.
Follow-up: I requested the specific source from which my personal Gmail address
had been obtained, asked who had added my email address to the organization’s mailing list,
and requested clarification regarding the legal basis for contacting me despite my publicly
available statement that I no longer participate in academic publishing.

Current status: Based on the correspondence available to me, I did not receive a
response identifying the specific source from which my personal Gmail address
had been obtained or explaining how my email address had been added to the mailing list.

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[14.] Climate Change 2026 / Coalesce Research Group: https://crgconferences.com/environmental/abstractsubmission

Communication: Invitation to participate as a keynote speaker, oral presenter,
or delegate at the 9th International Conference on Environmental Sustainability
and Climate Change (Climate Change 2026), sent to my personal Gmail address.

Source indicated by the organization: After initially providing only a general
explanation that my email address had been obtained from publicly available
academic profiles or conference proceedings, the organization later identified
the specific source as the FORMEC 2022 conference proceedings, where my email address
had been published in connection with my research.

Follow-up: I requested clarification regarding who had added my email address to
the organization’s mailing list and on what basis this had been done.
The organization explained that my email address had been collected from the publicly
available conference proceedings and added to its mailing list for conference invitations.
It acknowledged that I had not provided direct consent for this subscription,
apologized for the inconvenience, and confirmed that my email address had been removed from its mailing lists.

Current status: Although the organization clarified the source from which my email
address had been obtained and acknowledged that I had not directly consented to
being added to its mailing list, it did not identify the individual or specific
internal process responsible for adding my email address to the mailing list.

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Timeline

Late 2024 – Summer 2025: Numerous unsolicited invitations relating to journals,
conferences and editorial activities were received at my private Gmail address.

9 March 2025: I began publicly documenting these cases on Facebook while requesting
clarification from the respective organizations under the GDPR.

Summer 2025 onwards: The number of unsolicited academic emails decreased substantially,
although isolated cases continue to occur.