4 ms·

Imagine the spam you would get if you have a common name - like jsmith@gmail.com. I have a boss with a very common last name - not quite as common as smith tho

by sbov 11y ago

Imagine the spam you would get if you have a common name - like jsmith@gmail.com. I have a boss with a very common last name - not quite as common as smith though. He has a "jsmith@yahoo.com" email address. He constantly gets emails meant for other j smiths.

mmanfrin 11y ago
I have my [lastname]@gmail.com -- I have learned that there are many distant cousins in Brazil.
- RBerenguel 11y ago
  Something similar here :/
rconti 11y ago
Ditto. I assumed this happened to everyone; it happens to my gmail address constantly. Occasionally I get a message that's cc:d to sameusername@notmyuniversity.edu so I can at least inform the person that they've been using the wrong address. I actually was shocked to hear the above woman's voice on the radio one time, when she was interviewed by NPR as a faculty member at that same university! Mostly it's an annoyance, and pisses me off that more places don't use double-opt-in. I've had the GMail account since 2004 and I got no mis-addressed mail until at least 2008 or 2010, then only stray ones until about 2013 when all of a sudden there was an uptick and it seems like there must be at least 20 people who at least occasionally use my email address by mistake, at least on occasion. I've gotten Alitalia boarding passes, tax data, all kinds of things. I'm on a family mailing list. I got a reply to someone who sent an email (using my address) from behind the steering wheel of a top-down Miata. Imagine their shock when I sent back an identical picture from behind the wheel of my own identical car. Another good one was the kid who kept signing up for college information using my address. Then one day I got email from a college administrator saying the snail-mailed info packet was sent back to them as unaddressable, and asked him (me) for clarification as to his postal address. I politely pointed out that he also, unfortunately, provided an incorrect email address. I was thinking to myself "not everyone is college material", but others assured me I had done the right thing.
colkassad 11y ago
I have a similar email address. Signed up for gmail early on. A lot of people are surprised that AM doesn't verify emails, but it doesn't surprise me at all. I am signed up to 100s of newsletters and other services through no action on my part. I can say with certainty that Plenty of Fish also doesn't verify emails (at least at first,perhaps they inactivate accounts after a period of time). I had to add them to spam. It's too bad, some guy in Australia with my first letter/last name was getting a lot of attention from the ladies.
nsxwolf 11y ago
I'm stunned I'm not in the AM database. Variations of my gmail address (dots in different places) have been used to sign up for every sketchy "adult dating" site in the world. My wife saw some in my inbox and was very upset, until I showed her the massive amount of things I get that are quite obviously intended for someone else with my name.
- MatthaeusHarris 11y ago
  Gmail ignores the dots internally. j.smith@gmail.com is the same as js.mith@gmail.com is the same as jsmith@gmail.com.

by sbov 11y ago

mmanfrin 11y ago

I have my [lastname]@gmail.com -- I have learned that there are many distant cousins in Brazil.

RBerenguel 11y ago
Something similar here :/

rconti 11y ago

Ditto. I assumed this happened to everyone; it happens to my gmail address constantly. Occasionally I get a message that's cc:d to sameusername@notmyuniversity.edu so I can at least inform the person that they've been using the wrong address. I actually was shocked to hear the above woman's voice on the radio one time, when she was interviewed by NPR as a faculty member at that same university! Mostly it's an annoyance, and pisses me off that more places don't use double-opt-in. I've had the GMail account since 2004 and I got no mis-addressed mail until at least 2008 or 2010, then only stray ones until about 2013 when all of a sudden there was an uptick and it seems like there must be at least 20 people who at least occasionally use my email address by mistake, at least on occasion. I've gotten Alitalia boarding passes, tax data, all kinds of things. I'm on a family mailing list. I got a reply to someone who sent an email (using my address) from behind the steering wheel of a top-down Miata. Imagine their shock when I sent back an identical picture from behind the wheel of my own identical car. Another good one was the kid who kept signing up for college information using my address. Then one day I got email from a college administrator saying the snail-mailed info packet was sent back to them as unaddressable, and asked him (me) for clarification as to his postal address. I politely pointed out that he also, unfortunately, provided an incorrect email address. I was thinking to myself "not everyone is college material", but others assured me I had done the right thing.

colkassad 11y ago

I have a similar email address. Signed up for gmail early on. A lot of people are surprised that AM doesn't verify emails, but it doesn't surprise me at all. I am signed up to 100s of newsletters and other services through no action on my part. I can say with certainty that Plenty of Fish also doesn't verify emails (at least at first,perhaps they inactivate accounts after a period of time). I had to add them to spam. It's too bad, some guy in Australia with my first letter/last name was getting a lot of attention from the ladies.

nsxwolf 11y ago

I'm stunned I'm not in the AM database. Variations of my gmail address (dots in different places) have been used to sign up for every sketchy "adult dating" site in the world. My wife saw some in my inbox and was very upset, until I showed her the massive amount of things I get that are quite obviously intended for someone else with my name.

MatthaeusHarris 11y ago
Gmail ignores the dots internally. j.smith@gmail.com is the same as js.mith@gmail.com is the same as jsmith@gmail.com.