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I have a moderately uncommon last name (1400 in the world, according to forebears.io.) By having my lastname @gmail.com, I've met lots of people with the same

I have a moderately uncommon last name (1400 in the world, according to forebears.io.) By having my lastname @gmail.com, I've met lots of people with the same name who erroneously give out my gmail address as their contact information. At first this was kind of annoying, but now its become just amusing. I've gotten people's internet / cell / rv / NRA membership info sent to the address, and they are normally grateful when I reach out to them to ask them to correct it.

optimuspaul 10y ago
I also have a fairly uncommon name and I have the same problem, I get fairly sensitive information emailed to me all the time intended for people with my same last name and first initial on gmail. I'm very close to dumping gmail, it's close to 40% of the mail I receive there is not for me.
macNchz 10y ago
I also have lastname@gmail.com and get a fair amount of email intended for firstinitial.lastname@gmail.com addresses. Quite amusing sometimes, though sometimes annoying if it's a reply-all thread whose participants can't figure out how to remove me from. Having a very rare/globally unique name makes for a very different experience of online exposure than most people. If your name is shared by even a few dozen people, your identity online is at the very least muddled in a bit with information about other people. In my case, if you google my name I'm the only non-historical person you'll find. This has been a pain point in the past with 'real name' policies in online communities. For people named, say, Alex Smith, having their real name attached to a post online allows them to remain pseudo-anonymous, whereas my real name easily reveals much more about me. Mostly I've just embraced it and just make sure that I control the first page of profiles you find if you google my name, but it can be annoying.
mrec 10y ago
I've been getting a lot of that too; it's a bit scary how consistently some people can not know what their email address is, even for stuff you'd think they'd care about. Job offers, Facebook signup confirmations, utility connections, you name it. (Only one has included a snailmail address so far, and like most of them it's in the US, which would mean a transatlantic postcard, which means a ten-minute queue at the post office...)
InitialLastName 10y ago
I have [myFirstInitial][myLastName]@gmail.com and have also ended up with tons of misdirected mail (my last name is 1200 people per forebears.io, so similarly uncommon). Some of the better incidents: - Some woman (whose email address is [myFirstInitial][r][myLastName]@gmail.com) put me on her synagogue internal planning committee mailing list. I have never seen so much drama. They refused to remove my email address until I started doing a "reply all" to their emails with my lunch order. - A contractor (whose email address I still can't figure out) keeps getting $100k+ quotes sent to my email address. I'll inform the sender, but it never stops happening. - I received the background info for a small business loan request, including 3 years of tax returns, bank account statements, and credit statements for two folks in Texas. Short story, nobody's ever been grateful.

optimuspaul 10y ago

I also have a fairly uncommon name and I have the same problem, I get fairly sensitive information emailed to me all the time intended for people with my same last name and first initial on gmail. I'm very close to dumping gmail, it's close to 40% of the mail I receive there is not for me.

macNchz 10y ago

I also have lastname@gmail.com and get a fair amount of email intended for firstinitial.lastname@gmail.com addresses. Quite amusing sometimes, though sometimes annoying if it's a reply-all thread whose participants can't figure out how to remove me from. Having a very rare/globally unique name makes for a very different experience of online exposure than most people. If your name is shared by even a few dozen people, your identity online is at the very least muddled in a bit with information about other people. In my case, if you google my name I'm the only non-historical person you'll find. This has been a pain point in the past with 'real name' policies in online communities. For people named, say, Alex Smith, having their real name attached to a post online allows them to remain pseudo-anonymous, whereas my real name easily reveals much more about me. Mostly I've just embraced it and just make sure that I control the first page of profiles you find if you google my name, but it can be annoying.

mrec 10y ago

I've been getting a lot of that too; it's a bit scary how consistently some people can not know what their email address is, even for stuff you'd think they'd care about. Job offers, Facebook signup confirmations, utility connections, you name it. (Only one has included a snailmail address so far, and like most of them it's in the US, which would mean a transatlantic postcard, which means a ten-minute queue at the post office...)

InitialLastName 10y ago

I have [myFirstInitial][myLastName]@gmail.com and have also ended up with tons of misdirected mail (my last name is 1200 people per forebears.io, so similarly uncommon). Some of the better incidents: - Some woman (whose email address is [myFirstInitial][r][myLastName]@gmail.com) put me on her synagogue internal planning committee mailing list. I have never seen so much drama. They refused to remove my email address until I started doing a "reply all" to their emails with my lunch order. - A contractor (whose email address I still can't figure out) keeps getting $100k+ quotes sent to my email address. I'll inform the sender, but it never stops happening. - I received the background info for a small business loan request, including 3 years of tax returns, bank account statements, and credit statements for two folks in Texas. Short story, nobody's ever been grateful.