I got an email from a company from the distance past which may be fake, had 2 now and it is from many years ago that I was in contact with them, the company does still exist but I have not clicked on the email as it seems suspicious and keeps repeating, so best to register with the company web site direct again which I have done rather than via the unsolicited email which may be phishing.
In some cases hackers can use your email address and this can be for "illegal activity" such as imperonation, identity teft, fraud, unauthorised access, data protection breach.
Hackers/spammers can also set up new email addresses in your own name and send spam to you or use this for other purposes, the object being to get your attention or may be impersonation.
In some cases hackers will take over an email address which is more serious and difficult to recover, so tight security is needed.
I have had that happen a few times, and often find someone has used my email for things such as purchases, dating websites etc, it can happen to any email. In some cases it may be a mistake of typing but always check out anything unusual.
Sometimes your email adess can be used by hackers to register your account with a company to sign up for things by hackers, so you get an email which will ask for your details (phishing) and may be linked to fake websites
If that occurs change paswords and check email account security and check out any strange events but avoid clinking links in the email.
The old email contact that resumed after many years appears genuine, I can only think that they have found my email address on a database and resumed contact to see if I am still there.
Any unusual emails could be spam and need careful checking or deletion.
Email/data from the past the distant past can still exist stored for many years as electronic records on servers or even home comuters, or on hackers data bases.
Email security is imprtant so I use 2FA verification, this avoids hackers taking over emails and changing the account details, this also can prevent hackers finding your data and setting up accounts, emails etc using your details, I have seen emails with my name as the email address but a different named owner which could be hackers.
