Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

Suspicious emails from "Unity Technologies", legit or spam?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Peter77, Mar 26, 2020.

  1. Peter77

    Peter77

    QA Jesus

    Joined:
    Jun 12, 2013
    Posts:
    6,591
    For about 2 weeks I receive the following emails from "Unity Technologies" and I would like to know if these emails are legit or spam?


    Subject: Issues blocking your game development?
    upload_2020-3-26_18-45-0.png



    Subject: Productivity dropping because of time-wasting bugs?
    upload_2020-3-26_18-45-39.png


    Subject: How important is it that your game project stays on schedule?
    upload_2020-3-26_18-46-9.png
     
  2. N1warhead

    N1warhead

    Joined:
    Mar 12, 2014
    Posts:
    3,884
    Well certainly the @Something.com should tell you I'd assume lol.
     
    Peter77 likes this.
  3. AcidArrow

    AcidArrow

    Joined:
    May 20, 2010
    Posts:
    11,631
    It's probably legit spam from Unity, since Unity has been known to spam people with the latest things they want to push (remember Unity advisors?). Do you allow them to send you marketing e-mails? (there are some settings for this somewhere but I don't remember where).
     
    Marc-Saubion and Peter77 like this.
  4. Peter77

    Peter77

    QA Jesus

    Joined:
    Jun 12, 2013
    Posts:
    6,591
    Well the emails come from info@unity3d.com and the links in the email point to app.response.unity3d.com

    If it's legit, why would they write "found time wasting bugs, buy this service to find workarounds". That's just stupid :confused:
     
    Last edited: Mar 26, 2020
  5. neginfinity

    neginfinity

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2013
    Posts:
    13,554
    Mouse over the links and see where they lead. Looks like it is a legit spam from unity.
     
  6. AcidArrow

    AcidArrow

    Joined:
    May 20, 2010
    Posts:
    11,631
    I mean... If I was any meaner than I am, I would say that some department just found a way to monetize Unity's #1 resource: Bugs and Issues.

    They are one step before they actually flat out ask us to pay them for bug fixes.

    *Nice game you got there... It would be a shame if that blocking issue wasn't fixed before your intended release... A little money could go a long way... Mediatonic and Glu mobile are already paying, don't think you're special*
     
  7. ippdev

    ippdev

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2010
    Posts:
    3,850
    There is a lackadaisical attitude lately from bug report replies. I had two months of constant hard crashes to desktop and told them it was PhysX/rigidbody related. They said nope.. Issue closed..Nope issue closed nope issue closed. Then they write me weeks later and tell me they were able to reproduce it and it was in exactly the Broadphase where i said at the beginning. Their latest shenanigans involves lockups and/or hard crashes to desktop involving the editor UI which becomes unresponsive anywhere from 0 to 1/2 hour after sitting idle. Since 2019.3... They write me back and tell me my laptop hasn't got enough juice, I have too many polys and shaders. BS! I am on a honking desktop workstation with a GTX 1080 and 64 GB of RAM, I use two variants, the Standard Metallic shader and the Particle shader. None of the lockup scenes have more than a few million polys and if the entire hierarchy was unfolded may only run 8 to 12 inches. I ran bigger scenes on a Mac laptop back when Unity was 32 bit. They tried to get me to change registry keys saying the Timeout Detection and Recovery was the issue as being too aggressive.and pointed to a link on the MS pages. Well RegEdit only had one TDR entry on my PC and that did not match the documentation. This is totally pathetic. I am so glad I am not paying a subscription monthly at this point. I would have pissed 450 bucks at the wall and been furious to boot.
     
    Frienbert likes this.
  8. ippdev

    ippdev

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2010
    Posts:
    3,850
    Just had it crash after upgrading to 2019.3.7f1. Checked their ridiculous claim of too many yadda yaddas. I have 316.2k tris, 266 Batches 301.7k verts, 19.3MB for main screen drawing for about 500 objects...I am gonna narrow this one down to memory leak in the editor from having active particle systems...ummm...oops nope.. I had just turned off some particles and thought it had done the trick.. went back and the editor is again locked. Add a new gameObject from menu..which menu does work..adds nothing. Select new Layout and hard crash immediately after displaying blank Unity window.
     
    Frienbert likes this.
  9. JohnnyA

    JohnnyA

    Joined:
    Apr 9, 2010
    Posts:
    5,041
  10. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

    Joined:
    Dec 29, 2011
    Posts:
    15,617
    Isn't that easily faked, though?

    There are ways to be confident about where an email came from. My only-semi-informed mind wants to say "digital signing" but I don't know how practical that is in terms of email client support and such.

    These at least look a lot less like spam than some of the other similar emails people have posted.
     
  11. JohnnyA

    JohnnyA

    Joined:
    Apr 9, 2010
    Posts:
    5,041
    Modern mail services and protocols like SPF and DKIM do make that harder these days, but it would be bold to rely on it as a 100% guarantee. There's also various bugs and UX issues that crop up from time to time which can make it more difficult to see the real sender.

    Also of course don't forget the human angle, spam which builds urgency and/or looks like an email you would expect to see (e.g. asset store product update) can do subtle things to domain which can be hard to spot if you are in a hurry (e.g. assetstore@unity.com vs assetstore@untiy.com)
     
  12. MadeFromPolygons

    MadeFromPolygons

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2013
    Posts:
    3,967
    Unfortunately they are real and I have been getting a ton too.

    Its just spam at this point.

    I am coming here to help clean up unitys forums of spam, and in return they are spamming me.

    The way the bug one was written really really ****ed me off, and yes it does come across like they are trying to monetize bugs.

    Whoever is coming up with these emails in marketing, should stop right now and be put on something that doesnt allow them contact with users because they obviously have no idea what users expect to recieve as official comms from unity via email.
     
  13. mgear

    mgear

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2010
    Posts:
    9,351
    Now some of those email are even using the good'ol "Re:"-trick in email title (even though i haven't replied any of those)

    "Re: Thanks for Engaging!"
     
  14. Murgilod

    Murgilod

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 2013
    Posts:
    10,084
    The only emails I want from Unity are emails apologizing for the absolute state of Unity and notifications that I've been sent money via paypal for the inconvenience.
     
  15. Baste

    Baste

    Joined:
    Jan 24, 2013
    Posts:
    6,294
    @UnityMaru somebody should probably let your marketing department know that people assume that their emails are spam. That's generally a sign that they're doing something really, really wrong.

    This isn't the first time I've seen a thread going "hey, I got an email that says that it's from Unity, but it looks like it's spam, is it spam?"
     
  16. UnityMaru

    UnityMaru

    Community Engagement Manager PSM

    Joined:
    Mar 16, 2016
    Posts:
    1,227
    Thanks for the heads up. I'll be taking this up internally as I do appreciate the concerns you have all raised. I can confirm they are legitimate emails but I will address the frequency once I get more feedback.
     
  17. AcidArrow

    AcidArrow

    Joined:
    May 20, 2010
    Posts:
    11,631
    Just so we're clear, the frequency is not really the (only) issue here.
     
    Marc-Saubion and Antypodish like this.
  18. Antypodish

    Antypodish

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2014
    Posts:
    10,754
    As mentioned, is not frequency issue. Is abusive spamming attitude.
    In case, if nothing change, shall we reach to very top?
     
  19. UnityMaru

    UnityMaru

    Community Engagement Manager PSM

    Joined:
    Mar 16, 2016
    Posts:
    1,227
    From what I am guauging, it's both frequency and spam/attitude that is being raised here? For example:

     
  20. Antypodish

    Antypodish

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2014
    Posts:
    10,754
  21. UnityMaru

    UnityMaru

    Community Engagement Manager PSM

    Joined:
    Mar 16, 2016
    Posts:
    1,227
  22. MadeFromPolygons

    MadeFromPolygons

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2013
    Posts:
    3,967
    Yes absolutely.

    Based on the emails I was getting I actually marked unity.com as spam and all unity emails go into spam now for the last month or so for this exact reason. I havent really missed out because the only emails I was getting from unity were spam anyway due to me turning off all forum emails in preferences etc, and any billing emails get filtered into the correct section in my email app anyway so this just cleans my emails right up.

    But thats obviously bad because if unity wanted to communicate something serious to me as a user, they cant with confidence I will read it as now its in the spam folder for everything but billing.
     
    Marc-Saubion and Antypodish like this.
  23. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

    Joined:
    Dec 29, 2011
    Posts:
    15,617
    No, you can't. You can only confirm that Unity sends legitimate emails which look the same.

    It'd be trivially easy for a spammer to copy-paste the contents, redirect the link, and send them from a close-enough-to-be-mistaken address such as in @JohnnyA's post (or various other deceptive methods).
     
  24. Mauri

    Mauri

    Joined:
    Dec 9, 2010
    Posts:
    2,663
    Check the links by hovering over them and if they look like
    app.response.unity3d.com
    (like you had mentioned in #4), it should be fine. If you still don't fully trust it, simply delete the emails.

    Afaik you can change what emails you want to receive in your My Account Settings under Communication > Email Preferences:
    https://id.unity.com/en/account/edit

    _
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2020
    Peter77 likes this.
  25. Peter77

    Peter77

    QA Jesus

    Joined:
    Jun 12, 2013
    Posts:
    6,591
    I just checked my email preferences on that link and I already had turned off everything. So Unity isn't respecting those email preferences when sending around their spam mails.

    @UnityMaru
     
  26. AlanMattano

    AlanMattano

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2013
    Posts:
    1,501
    Is there any Unity spoof email to submit a phishing attempt?
    So that we can look for an answer in a private way.
     
  27. Midiphony-panda

    Midiphony-panda

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2020
    Posts:
    242
    I have received two emails from Remy.Greene@e-mail.unity3d.com, but I feel like there's something fishy with the email domain
    upload_2022-7-19_17-54-18.png
     
  28. Tautvydas-Zilys

    Tautvydas-Zilys

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2013
    Posts:
    10,646
    Looks like phishing. Don't click on any links.

    EDIT: I was wrong. This email is legit. See below.
     
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2022
  29. DEEnvironment

    DEEnvironment

    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2018
    Posts:
    437

    i had the same emails a few months ago just after downloading
    "The definitive guide to lighting in the High Definition Render Pipeline"

    that Unity download triggered a massive slide of spam as they ask you for email address to send you the download link

    never click on them lol
     
  30. sacb0y

    sacb0y

    Joined:
    May 9, 2016
    Posts:
    867
    I've also gotten this email recently from this same email address. The fact it says "e-mail.unity3D.com" was a red flag for me.

    Checking the whois data
    Whois unity3d.com

    it seems the subdomain is legit. But I would recommend removing that "e-mail" moniker. Cause to me it seems like a domain modified to look like an official unity domain.
     
  31. DragonCoder

    DragonCoder

    Joined:
    Jul 3, 2015
    Posts:
    1,679
    Careful! Due to the fact that the email protocol was developed in times when all correspondents were friends with each other, there are ways to completely fake the shown senders address!
     
  32. d3eds

    d3eds

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2022
    Posts:
    53
    Can someone from Unity answer this question, please?
     
  33. Murgilod

    Murgilod

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 2013
    Posts:
    10,084
    They literally did.

     
  34. hippocoder

    hippocoder

    Digital Ape

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2010
    Posts:
    29,723
    Quoting in case anyone misses it.
     
    angrypenguin likes this.
  35. d3eds

    d3eds

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2022
    Posts:
    53
    That's an answer to a different question.

    The question is:

    Can Unity give us an email address, at Unity, that we can be sure is a Unity email address, to which we can submit suspicious emails for review and a response direct from Unity?
     
  36. hippocoder

    hippocoder

    Digital Ape

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2010
    Posts:
    29,723
    AlanMattano likes this.
  37. d3eds

    d3eds

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2022
    Posts:
    53
    It'd be much nicer, and more congruent with the medium, if we could just forward with a question like: "is this for reals?" to an email address where we can be certain a human takes a look and thinks about what they're seeing.
     
    angrypenguin and hippocoder like this.
  38. Antypodish

    Antypodish

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2014
    Posts:
    10,754
    Such question as your quote, would be most likely filtered out as spam.

    You need take into consideration, there is literary thousands of users and no less os spam bots. Giving actual email for such big organisation become unrealistic.

    However, you have been given an answer by others already.
     
  39. Tautvydas-Zilys

    Tautvydas-Zilys

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2013
    Posts:
    10,646
    For starters, it'd come from @unity3d.com or @unity.com domain.
     
    d3eds and angrypenguin like this.
  40. d3eds

    d3eds

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2022
    Posts:
    53
    Great info.

    Given the amount of phishy stuff sent to Unity users by phishery types, and the often phishy nature of Unity's emails (and them often having terrible mail merge formatting that smells fishy) is there any chance someone at Unity could set up an email address attended by a human that's something like:

    emailAuthenticityCheck@unity.com

    ...so we can forward anything suss to someone with an overview of communications, and be sure the respondent is a human.

    This way Unity can also get a feel for how much crap is being sent around, and how much some of their own emails look and feel phishy to users, and head off some of the problems that sometimes pop up with regards to the outrage inducing "it looks like you're making more money than you told us..." emails of the recent and recurring past, that tend to eat heavily into whatever goodwill is left towards Unity after the last few weeks.
     
  41. Tautvydas-Zilys

    Tautvydas-Zilys

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2013
    Posts:
    10,646
    Time to eat my own hat. Apparently this email was legit. It's being sent out by a bot and that's why it's coming from a subdomain. No danger here!
     
  42. Tautvydas-Zilys

    Tautvydas-Zilys

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2013
    Posts:
    10,646
    We are looking at our options for this.
     
  43. AlanMattano

    AlanMattano

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2013
    Posts:
    1,501
    No, they did not. Because my question was
    Please make the email authenticator check first and then send
     
  44. Tamerlana

    Tamerlana

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2017
    Posts:
    2
    Hi all, I have received a similar email from Remy.Greene@e-mail.unity3d.com, and confirmed with Unity through a support ticket that it is legit.

    Here is a full reply:
    Thank you for contacting Unity Customer Experience!

    Firstly, I would like to reassure you that there is nothing to be concerned about here. The email you have received is from Unity and is entirely legitimate. I can assure you of that.

    The email you received is from Remy, our AI bot that we recently implemented to reach out to customers as a kind of pre-sales inquiry.

    This kind of email is only sent to customers who have, at some point in the past, consented to receive emails from Unity of this nature.

    If you no longer wish to receive these kinds of emails, you should find an unsubscribe button included at the bottom. If you cannot unsubscribe, please let me know, and I can follow up with our team.​
     
  45. DEEnvironment

    DEEnvironment

    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2018
    Posts:
    437
    Hahah perhaps in the next Dev Blitz Day 2022 - Q&A ask Unity about it
    an ask them if it's possible to just only unsubscribe emails from Remy bot !!!
    Official - Scriptable Render Pipeline Dev Blitz Day 2022 - Q&A - Unity Forum

    note i blocked this email last July 2022 and tagged it as phishing
    blocking it did not block any of the important emails that i still receive from unity ;)
     
  46. joshcamas

    joshcamas

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2017
    Posts:
    1,276
    They made a bot to spam email us, their own customers. Incredible.
     
  47. SMokah

    SMokah

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    May 23, 2022
    Posts:
    4
    Hey Josh, as Tamara had mentioned above, we only message inquiries that have consented to be reached out by sales. EX: You are wanting to purchase Unity Enterprise or anything that would require speaking to a sales representative.

    We may also reach out to you if you download an e-book or watch a webinar, if you are required to submit your information. We do this just to see if there are any questions that we can answer for you.

    I assure you that we will never message you without your consent nor will we ever spam you with unnecessary emails.

    If there is anything that I may answer for you, please let me know!
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2022
  48. Baste

    Baste

    Joined:
    Jan 24, 2013
    Posts:
    6,294
    Is this the same level of "consented to be reach out to by sales" as any other company does, meaning that you put in an automatically toggled checkbox somewhere that is hard to spot?

    Because you know just as well as us that nobody wants to be "reached out to by sales", ever. That's always junk. Every time a human has "consented" to that, it's because they didn't notice a thing saying "you're consenting to this".

    I mean, I feel you. You're kinda required to do annoying things by your job. But, like, don't come and try to pull the "you totally asked for this" or "it's not spam emails" S***. You know that that's untrue, we know that that's untrue. It's spam, nobody wanted it. Just say "you can unsubscribe" and move on.
     
    joshcamas likes this.
  49. SMokah

    SMokah

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    May 23, 2022
    Posts:
    4

    Hey Baste,

    An example would be anything that requires you to fill out a 'Contact Us' form. Here is the Unity Enterprise example: https://store.unity.com/products/unity-enterprise

    Or say you register for Unite, towards the bottom, the form asks you if you would like sales to reach out to you: https://unity.virtualeventsite.com/registration/?level=1

    Before we implemented Remy, anyone who filled out these forms would be reached out directly by sales. We decided to implement this as a way to pre-screen and redirect non-sales related inquires to proper forums, support tickets, or products that may be purchased without the need of speaking to sales.
     
    Last edited: Sep 30, 2022
  50. DEEnvironment

    DEEnvironment

    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2018
    Posts:
    437