4 ms·

Someone registered and paid for a new Netflix account with my gmail address plus a point somewhere, which Gmail ignores. So I logged into the Netflix account, t

Someone registered and paid for a new Netflix account with my gmail address plus a point somewhere, which Gmail ignores. So I logged into the Netflix account, thinking it was actually mine and this was some misunderstanding. I realized that was not the case, so I to tried to get in touch with the person but no other info was available, everything was done from his phone apparently according to the account logs. I figured that reporting it to support would not do much since they too did not have his info and no phone number was on record, they would cancel the account and maybe the amount paid would be lost. Finally the only way I found to notify the user was by creating/modifying Netflix users with usernames as short telegraphic messages such as "you registered", "using my email", "*@gmail.com is mine","contact me or change it". That message would be visible as the user opened up any of the Netflix apps or web app. It apparently worked as a couple days later my email stopped being primary on the account and never got any Netflix emails at that gmail inbox.

peter303 7y ago
gmail has this weird bug that if I am XY@gmail.com, I also get email from X.Y@gmail.com.
- osrec 7y ago
  Is that just for you? Or in general for anyone?
  - ivanhoe 7y ago
    For everyone, that's on purpose. Also xy+anything@gmail.com will go to xy@gmail.com inbox (with anything label added)...
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - will0 7y ago
    Gmail ignores periods in emails. It also ignores everything after the +. So if your email is bob@gmail.com you can also use: b.ob@gmail.com, b.o.b@gmail.com, bob+alice@gmail.com, You can use the second one to do filtering. I.e. use a different +{filter} for bills, entertainment etc. bob+bills@gmail.com for bills. bob+spam@gmail.com for sites you know will spam you etc. then setup mail rules to filter based on the +
    - azthecx 7y ago
      What if my email IS a.bob.mail@gmail.com, if someone registers abobmail@gmail.com are they getting my emails?
      - MrOxiMoron 7y ago
        no, Gmail does check for that during registration. But you could use those two different email addresses to create two separate accounts somewhere else.
      - stef25 7y ago
        There's a slight chance the gmail developers would have thought of that scenario.
    - osrec 7y ago
      I knew about the + sign, but not about the period. Thanks for that - will come in handy!
- thanhhaimai 7y ago
  It's not a bug. It's a feature :) "If someone accidentally adds dots to your address when emailing you, you'll still get that email. For example, if your email is johnsmith@gmail.com, you own all dotted versions of your address" https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en# https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en#
  - quietbritishjim 7y ago
    That would be a great feature if you could tell gmail what +something suffixes you've used and it blocked all mail to other suffixes and the address without the suffix. As it is, spammers can just strip off the +something part, or change it to +somethingelse, to cover their tracks. I know this is gmail specific - for other providers they'd have to keep +something suffix in case it really goes to a different inbox - but gmail is so big that spammers can afford to make a special case for them.
    - anoncake 7y ago
      Gmail has a filter feature, can't you use it for that?
      - etherealG 7y ago
        yes, but the point is that spammers can easily modify that part of the address to make the filter stop working.
        anoncake 7y ago
        Doesn't Gmail support rules that apply when no other did? That could be used to filter out all emails to addresses that are in use we while deleting all others.
- runeks 7y ago
  It’s not a bug, it’s a feature: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- meigwilym 7y ago
  This is a feature not a bug[0]. You can also add a plus sign with your own string after the username, useful for giving to websites you don't fully trust. e.g. user.name+facebook@gmail.com Gmail will still send it to user.name@ and you can track and filter the messages sent to that address. [0] https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150 https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150
  - lostlogin 7y ago
    Absolutely this, it’s a great feature. When required to give an email I add a prefix so that it’s easy to track and block.
chris_overseas 7y ago
I have this problem too - only, it happens a LOT. I've had people use my Gmail address but without the "." to sign up (or try to) for Playstation accounts, Apple accounts, Paypal, Skype, Bank accounts, plus it's pretty common that I receive wills and other sensitive legal documents, property deals, you name it. The legal docs etc are likely due to other people mishearing/mistyping someone's email which I can understand, but I'm constantly baffled by how often people must type in their OWN email address incorrectly for important situations too. Often I can just ignore the signup confirmation emails and it doesn't go any further, but it's surprising how often there is no confirmation link sent out and the account gets opened without verification of the email address. At that point, it can be incredibly difficult to get the problem rectified. Most companies don't seem to have any procedure in place to deal with this situation - Many online companies only have an easy way to contact them if you are one of their customers, so I often have to resort to resetting that user's password to get into their account and use the company's contact form to try and get things straightened out from there. Sometimes even that isn't possible, e.g. because 2FA prevents me from resetting the password, so about the best I can do is unsubscribe from their marketing emails and leave the account active.
- topmonk 7y ago
  I have a very similar problem as this, but often it's in another language, German or Spanish usually, to boot. The access I have to mess with other peoples' lives, if I so chose, is amazing.
sleepychu 7y ago
How did you log into it? By changing the password?
donkeyd 7y ago
I have this same issue with one of my junk email addresses. It's pretty short, it's a famous person's last name (I was a fan), but it's not a very common last name. I've received all kinds of stuff, from many people, but one lady in particular. I only recently noticed this and when checking, I found out that this had been going on since 2008. She's used my email for: car service appointments, plane tickets, Walmart orders, forwards from her work email, turbo tax, customer support, change.org, hotel reservations, etc. Pretty much every aspect of her life has ended up in that mailbox. I'm truly happy for her that I'm not a malicious person and when I figured it out I sent her a message. I hope she manages to stop using my email for stuff.
zantana 7y ago
It does make a case for not using common user names. I used to always try to use my first name in the early days of the Internet, but it was almost always taken. The one time I got it was with one of the Maxis online accounts and for the next couple of years I seemed to get a bunch of password reset requests from people who thought it was their account. While there's something to be said for not using the same user name across different systems using a very common name is not a mistake I'm going to make again.

peter303 7y ago

gmail has this weird bug that if I am XY@gmail.com, I also get email from X.Y@gmail.com.

osrec 7y ago
Is that just for you? Or in general for anyone?
- ivanhoe 7y ago
  For everyone, that's on purpose. Also xy+anything@gmail.com will go to xy@gmail.com inbox (with anything label added)...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- will0 7y ago
  Gmail ignores periods in emails. It also ignores everything after the +. So if your email is bob@gmail.com you can also use: b.ob@gmail.com, b.o.b@gmail.com, bob+alice@gmail.com, You can use the second one to do filtering. I.e. use a different +{filter} for bills, entertainment etc. bob+bills@gmail.com for bills. bob+spam@gmail.com for sites you know will spam you etc. then setup mail rules to filter based on the +
  - azthecx 7y ago
    What if my email IS a.bob.mail@gmail.com, if someone registers abobmail@gmail.com are they getting my emails?
    - MrOxiMoron 7y ago
      no, Gmail does check for that during registration. But you could use those two different email addresses to create two separate accounts somewhere else.
    - stef25 7y ago
      There's a slight chance the gmail developers would have thought of that scenario.
  - osrec 7y ago
    I knew about the + sign, but not about the period. Thanks for that - will come in handy!
thanhhaimai 7y ago
It's not a bug. It's a feature :) "If someone accidentally adds dots to your address when emailing you, you'll still get that email. For example, if your email is johnsmith@gmail.com, you own all dotted versions of your address" https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en# https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en#
- quietbritishjim 7y ago
  That would be a great feature if you could tell gmail what +something suffixes you've used and it blocked all mail to other suffixes and the address without the suffix. As it is, spammers can just strip off the +something part, or change it to +somethingelse, to cover their tracks. I know this is gmail specific - for other providers they'd have to keep +something suffix in case it really goes to a different inbox - but gmail is so big that spammers can afford to make a special case for them.
  - anoncake 7y ago
    Gmail has a filter feature, can't you use it for that?
    - etherealG 7y ago
      yes, but the point is that spammers can easily modify that part of the address to make the filter stop working.
      - anoncake 7y ago
        Doesn't Gmail support rules that apply when no other did? That could be used to filter out all emails to addresses that are in use we while deleting all others.
runeks 7y ago
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
meigwilym 7y ago
This is a feature not a bug[0]. You can also add a plus sign with your own string after the username, useful for giving to websites you don't fully trust. e.g. user.name+facebook@gmail.com Gmail will still send it to user.name@ and you can track and filter the messages sent to that address. [0] https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150 https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150
- lostlogin 7y ago
  Absolutely this, it’s a great feature. When required to give an email I add a prefix so that it’s easy to track and block.

chris_overseas 7y ago

I have this problem too - only, it happens a LOT. I've had people use my Gmail address but without the "." to sign up (or try to) for Playstation accounts, Apple accounts, Paypal, Skype, Bank accounts, plus it's pretty common that I receive wills and other sensitive legal documents, property deals, you name it. The legal docs etc are likely due to other people mishearing/mistyping someone's email which I can understand, but I'm constantly baffled by how often people must type in their OWN email address incorrectly for important situations too. Often I can just ignore the signup confirmation emails and it doesn't go any further, but it's surprising how often there is no confirmation link sent out and the account gets opened without verification of the email address. At that point, it can be incredibly difficult to get the problem rectified. Most companies don't seem to have any procedure in place to deal with this situation - Many online companies only have an easy way to contact them if you are one of their customers, so I often have to resort to resetting that user's password to get into their account and use the company's contact form to try and get things straightened out from there. Sometimes even that isn't possible, e.g. because 2FA prevents me from resetting the password, so about the best I can do is unsubscribe from their marketing emails and leave the account active.

topmonk 7y ago
I have a very similar problem as this, but often it's in another language, German or Spanish usually, to boot. The access I have to mess with other peoples' lives, if I so chose, is amazing.

sleepychu 7y ago

How did you log into it? By changing the password?

donkeyd 7y ago

I have this same issue with one of my junk email addresses. It's pretty short, it's a famous person's last name (I was a fan), but it's not a very common last name. I've received all kinds of stuff, from many people, but one lady in particular. I only recently noticed this and when checking, I found out that this had been going on since 2008. She's used my email for: car service appointments, plane tickets, Walmart orders, forwards from her work email, turbo tax, customer support, change.org, hotel reservations, etc. Pretty much every aspect of her life has ended up in that mailbox. I'm truly happy for her that I'm not a malicious person and when I figured it out I sent her a message. I hope she manages to stop using my email for stuff.

zantana 7y ago

It does make a case for not using common user names. I used to always try to use my first name in the early days of the Internet, but it was almost always taken. The one time I got it was with one of the Maxis online accounts and for the next couple of years I seemed to get a bunch of password reset requests from people who thought it was their account. While there's something to be said for not using the same user name across different systems using a very common name is not a mistake I'm going to make again.