11 ms·

I mostly use one single address, but I can tell you exactly where all the spam comes from: idiots whose name is the same as mine. They give my address as if it

by narag 5y ago

I mostly use one single address, but I can tell you exactly where all the spam comes from: idiots whose name is the same as mine. They give my address as if it belonged to them. Probably they created addresses like narag33@server and they believe that it's narag@server instead. So not only I receive all the spam from dubious sites that they suscribed to, but also their legitimate mail from lists and friends. My namesakes are idiots. But some of the companies responsible of the subscriptions, like Paypal, are assholes. They allow the creation of accounts without verifying the email, then refuse to admit it's their problem and do something about it.

yencabulator 4y ago
Somebody signed up for a dating service with my email address. The website allowed me to log in without entering or resetting the password. So, naturally, I changed their gender preferences.
CamperBob2 5y ago
Same here. I thought I was lucky when I snagged one of the first GMail invites and was able to pick a 5-letter user name. Oops: https://i.imgur.com/Y5c1iIt.png https://i.imgur.com/Y5c1iIt.png
- selcuka 5y ago
  I thought Gmail didn't allow usernames shorter than 6 characters.
  - CamperBob2 5y ago
    Ah, you're right, it's 6 (first initial + 5 character last name.) I can't count...
- johnwalkr 5y ago
  Same. I even paid about $10 on eBay to snag an early invitation.
skielight 5y ago
I have the exact same issue. My name is quite common and I registered my email address more than 15 years ago, so it looks something like <firstname>@<server>. Now I get phone bills, internet bills, promo emails, subscription emails, two factor emails, and sometimes even bank related emails addressed to someone who shares their first name with me. It's been years now. I've reported the emails, but neither the intended recipients, not the sending organizations seem to care. I agree, my namesakes are idiots too and so are the companies who don't have a simple email verification system. :(
- egberts1 5y ago
  What I do is log into the billing account and change the email to support@billingcompanyinsertedhere.com Never heard from them again.
gaetgu 5y ago
This is one hundred percent the problem. I got my address back when gmail was invite-only (so its super simple), so I get tons of emails meant for other people.
shiftpgdn 5y ago
Any time I can I login to their accounts and update the email to null@void.com .
- jt2190 5y ago
  You’re probably joking, but in case you aren’t, don’t put in an address for a registered domain like void.com, as you’ll just be redirecting the spam to them. Instead use the reserved domain example.com.
  - c0wb0yc0d3r 5y ago
    I just use the domain of the site the account belongs to. If I'm getting really naughty, I will put sales@<server>
    - bunnyfoofoo 5y ago
      Oooh, I hadn’t thought of sales. I always use support@server whenever a site asks if I want to join their newsletter.
joecot 5y ago
I deal with the same problem with fullname@gmail. My name is very common, surprisingly so if you're not Italian. I get emails for: * A Joe who runs a lego engineering team at his high school * A Joe who goes to bible study in Utah * A Joe who is building a house in Victoria Australia (I'm so familiar with him/others screwing up his email that I can forward it to him and his wife easily.
- cproctor 5y ago
  In my personal metaverse, I'm really into falconry (I've ordered several leather falcon hoods), I have a commercial truckers license, I'm part of a pushy childrens' soccer league, and am eagerly planning a trip to the holy land. I did get an invite from one of them to play golf together in Wales.
  - lelanthran 5y ago
    > In my personal metaverse, I'm really into falconry (I've ordered several leather falcon hoods), I have a commercial truckers license, I'm part of a pushy childrens' soccer league, and am eagerly planning a trip to the holy land. I did get an invite from one of them to play golf together in Wales. Your targetted ads must be really interesting :-) The silver lining is, of course, that no one has yet built an accurate profile of you ...
- hdkrgr 5y ago
  For me, it's a Shawn in Colorado who goes to bible study, renovates houses, and signs (me!) up for every Republican newsletter he can find. Also: When I use Facebook's feature "show data that others have uploaded about you" (or similar), it is full of this guy's stuff that was provided to facebook (and attributed to me) by businesses this guy has relationships with. Nothing I can do to remove it.
Brajeshwar 5y ago
LOL. So, my name is a pretty standard Indian name and many a lot do not confirm their email addresses (Banks, Insurances, etc). India's default email provider is, of course, GMAIL (even government officials use it). I was one of the early distributor of Gmail invites (I invited a lot) and I own brajeshwar@gmail.com Now, I get Bank Statements, Credit Card, Health, Insurance and whatnot for over 5+ "Brajeshwar"s in India. I just ignore them as I use my GMAIL ID just for newsletter subscriptions and ramnants of the old Internet but I do check once a week during my weekly digital chores.
- Marsymars 5y ago
  > I do check once a week during my weekly digital chores. OT, but I’m going to start using “digital chores”. When my partner asks what I’m doing and I answer “paperwork” it doesn’t sound quite right.
johnwalkr 5y ago
I have the same problem and at least once a week someone tries to recover the password to “their” email address. I’ve gotten unlimited spam which my provider usually deals with well but sometimes there are periods of days where 5+ per hour get through. I’ve gotten dick pics and all kinds of receipts. I have hotel logins with the wrong name assigned because I could only make accounts by recovering one someone else made (so my hotel receipts have the wrong name on them). I used to reply to misaddressed mail when it amused me. I used to string along a whole family of people that included me in group emails with racist Obama memes and pictures bragging of poaching. I stopped replying to these when in another case I was asked to tell estranged and family member that their sister had cancer since I was the only one still in contact with her. I did inform them they had the wrong address at that point. I’m still on a mailing list for senior members of a local police department and even was sent logon/passwords to some of their systems but I’ve learned not to try to correct these things, it’s just too much of a hassle. In the case of Venmo and Verizon I couldn’t get it fixed even with phone calls.
- dfee 5y ago
  Maybe this is why I’ve received upwards of 500 requests to reset my Instagram password over the last year?
2bluesc 5y ago
I had an entire Comcast account registered to someone with the same name in another part of the state that took me years to get rid of. Could even login with my email address because he registered it to my account and somehow the email side stepped verification. Imagine dealing with Comcast customer support. Then imagine not even being a customer anymore trying to get this resolved. Now imagine explaining how you're not the person on the account yet have the same name and how this is a huge privacy/security violation. Took years to get rid of. One day I'm waiting for a silly collections bill or something to show up in "my" name for the other person.
- bestnameever 5y ago
  I've had this with credit card accounts. It usually gets settled pretty quickly when I escalate it to fraud or security.
starwind 5y ago
There's a <starwind> in Australia so occasionally I get stuff for <starwind>@gmail.com. I got his golf club membership info sent to my email address. I've gotten his dinner reservation info sent to my email address. For like 2 months I got his paystub sent to my email address. I really wish I could get his phone bill sent to my email address so I could call and tell him he could have gotten a larger raise
noufalibrahim 5y ago
I got my gmail account early and was able to get my first name at gmail.com. My name is fairly popular in my part of the world and everyone who has it uses my email address as a throwaway since they actually authenticate using a phone number. I have matrimonials, visa applications, leave applications, uber accounts, SaaS subscriptions, porn subscriptions, random newsletters and what not. My gmail account is all but unusable now.
- switchbak 5y ago
  I have the same, but less volume than you. I've had VERY confidential mail sent to me, and one time someone even tried to send me 1500 bucks, but alas I didn't know the password for the transfer :) Sometimes I get so annoyed I do a password reset on their accounts. Gotta learn some how.
  - noufalibrahim 5y ago
    I've done that too. Password resets.
- lelanthran 5y ago
  > I got my gmail account early and was able to get my first name at gmail.com. Same here. But my first name is so unusual that I have literally not found anyone else on the internet with my first name. Any and all searches for my first name (and nothing else) have results that point to me.
ValentineC 5y ago
> But some of the companies responsible of the subscriptions, like Paypal, are assholes. They allow the creation of accounts without verifying the email, then refuse to admit it's their problem and do something about it. +1. My OG name email has been mistakenly registered for a PayPal account, but there's no way I can go about disavowing the account, or removing my email address from it.
- _s 5y ago
  I’ve had a few folks use my email. This is going to prove wildly unpopular but I just reset the password using the email, go in and delete the account (or submit a ticket with support to do so). They can make a new one with their own email if it’s important.
  - hamburglar 5y ago
    Not wildly unpopular with me. I’ve canceled multiple Netflix accounts using my $firstInitial$lastName@gmail account. My excuse if they ever challenged me would be to say I thought it was fraudulent because I didn’t set it up and I didn’t want my email to be the only contact method. Edit: there is one boost mobile customer who has done this to me and I can’t figure out the exact address they used (the thing where you can add periods gives a lot of possibilities), and I really wish I could password reset and close this account because approximately every other month for years I get late payment notices, then impending cutoff notices, then cutoff notices, then “thank you for your payment your service has been restored” notices. It’s both sad and annoying and I finally just black-holed everything from boost mobile and hope I never decide to be their customer in the future because troubleshooting mail delivery problems when I’ve forgotten about this will drive me insane.
    - bee_rider 5y ago
      I have had this happen to me as well. It was pretty annoying. Somebody used my name for a Twitch account. I wanted to do things the 'right way' so I didn't verify the email, didn't log in and change their password -- I contacted customer support instead (mostly just to see how it would work -- I have a very unusual name, so this is a kind of rare event for me). It took them, I think, years to delete the thing. I've never really been 100% sure if changing the password and logging in to delete the account would violate the CFAA. I mean nobody would have gone after me for a Twitch account anyway, and I'd definitely have felt moral deleting the thing, but the letter of the law...
Semaphor 5y ago
Yeah, I have firstlast@gmail.com with an extremely common German name. I’m on some investor list for a biotech company, I’ve received patent applications and internal discussions, holiday pictures, quotes for everything from building houses to repairing things. I don’t even use gmail anymore, but I keep looking into what kind of fun emails I get (and I report every opt-out-only newsletter, which includes Google Fiber and some US Democratic Party thing, as spam).
Natsu 5y ago
I get random invoices in languages I don't even speak due to something similar.
brenainn 5y ago
I was getting some dude's email for about 7 years. Started with newsletters and discussion threads for a journalism guild and a teacher's union. I found that amusing and left it, but one day emailed whoever was in charge and let them know I'm not the intended recipient. Stopped for a while and then it started again and I ignored it. But in the last few years I started getting hotel reservations, golf course membership, bills, orders for liver supplements. I tracked down who it is ages ago and sent them an email (I was cordial - "Hey we have such similar names but I'm on the other side of the world, crazy huh?") and got no response. Eventually I replied to the liver pill people and said "Hey this isn't me and if you could let the actual person know that'd be great" and the emails stopped. Way to go liver pill people.
- jusssi 5y ago
  I have my own domain that I used to use for hosting random stuff and my email (nowadays it's just for the email). The email is a catch-all box. I once got someone and their family's Disney World booking details sent to <theirname>@<mydomain>. It was a real thing, I could click the link and go view their booking at the official website. I have no idea what made that person to type out <mydomain> as their email, the domain is not even close to any publicly hosted email services or any company names. I kept getting more notifications of the upcoming Disney World trip so I ended up disabling that particular address so that those emails bounce.
- croon 5y ago
  > I was getting some dude's email for about 7 years. Started with newsletters and discussion threads for a journalism guild and a teacher's union. I found that amusing and left it, but one day emailed whoever was in charge and let them know I'm not the intended recipient. Stopped for a while and then it started again and I ignored it. I had a similar experience, funnily enough golf course memberships too. Doing minimal OSI work on the numerous emails I found the guy on facebook and friended him (accepted due to same surname I assume). I remember saying something like: "Hi, I noticed you just signed up for an Epic Games account, and you happened to use my email address <lastname>@gmail. Would you mind not doing that, please?" He responded that I was a creep and that it was his email, and proceeded to block me. I mean he might've been right on the former, but patently wrong on the latter.
20after4 5y ago
Someone decided to start a weed business in Spokane Washington using my gmail address as their business email contact for all of the greenery suppliers. Now I get tons and tons of marijuana-related spam. I guess they are too stoned to tell the difference between 20 and twenty? I don't know.
- digisign 5y ago
  A lawyer in Texas has the same initials as I. Their domain is the same as mine + "law" at the end. Guess how many of her clients forget the "law"?
- BoxOfRain 5y ago
  That would stress me out! I'm a completely legitimate medical cannabis patient in the UK and I still get nervous about reading emails from the clinic when I'm at work.
invaliduser 5y ago
Same here. My name is very common and I have an email similar to John Smith <smith.jj@gmail.com>, and I have around 10 people around the world named like me or similarly that use my email for everything. I receive, almost weekly, paid invoices, flight tickets, appointment reminders, a teen soccer club newsletter, new instagram accounts, etc anything you can imagine really. A few years ago I tried to contact some of my other selfs to ask them to mind their email, but never got any response. I'm just ignoring them now or hitting the spam button (after all, the senders should have a process to check the address instead of taking erroneous email addresses written by hand on paper).
- Moru 5y ago
  My wife has had the same problem for a long time. What finaly got through was to contact one of the travel agencies to point out that she got plane tickets in someone elses name and to please talk to this woman that she has the wrong idea about her email adress. Has been quiet for a few years now.
- wyclif 5y ago
  My real surname isn't a common one, so I went ahead and grabbed mysurname@gmail.com in March 2004 when Evan Williams sent me a Gmail invite. But my surname is English and one that is predominately found in the UK, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. So I sometimes get invoices, signups, verifications, and other junk from someplace in Australia and those other English-speaking countries. I've also found it's a waste of time to correct it. Once an address is "out there" in the wild, it's going to get passed around.
raverbashing 5y ago
> They allow the creation of accounts without verifying the email, then refuse to admit it's their problem and do something about it. Add Discord to the list. Use an account with an unverified mail? Fine by us! Go and try to actually verify the mail? Alarm bells go off and the acct locks up (sorry, not sorry for the owner of that acct)
DavidSJ 5y ago
This happens to me all the time. Perhaps the most amusing instance went as follows (quoted verbatim, with identifying information omitted): This email is regarding: []. Class: MATH 7 ADVANCED Prd: 2 Teacher: [] ----------------------------------------------- Good evening, please check [] for missing work, complete it and submit it. Let me know if you have questions or need any help or anything opened up or more tries. Remember the Ch. 3 test due today. Thank you, Mrs. [] I replied: I think you've got the wrong email address. Thanks, David The teacher then replied: My apologies. You are correct. Your son is crushing it :) and I failed to take him off the group email. Thank you so much for letting me know and keep up the great work! Again, I apologize for the inconvenience. Mrs. [] I then replied: Thanks! Only one thing: I don't have a son.
usr1106 5y ago
> where all the spam comes from The problem is the word spam. What you describe, misdirected mail from completely legal businesses is not really spam, even if it is junk for you personally. There is aggressive marketing of very vaguely related products you have actually registered for. There is marketing of illegal products mostly using harvested addresses. There is phishing often using stolen addresses. If you want to understand the problem as the OP obviously does just speaking of spam is not helpful.
- narag 5y ago
  What you describe... Those persons give my address all over the place. Don't you understand the implication? Also using unverified addresses by Paypal and other assholes is irresponsible and honestly I can't see why it isn't spam. Edit: Add Netflix to the assholes list. I've just reset the password for another idiot.
- withinboredom 5y ago
  Spam has a legal definition: Unsolicited commercial messages. If the actual receiver didn’t solicit the message, it is spam. It doesn’t matter if the business is legitimate or not, if anything it makes it worse because the FTC occasionally does fine companies for sending spam. Legally, you have to verify the email address before sending any further messages. If you don’t, you open yourself up to some serious fines if and when the FTC or whomever decides they want to make an example of you.
  - usr1106 5y ago
    So phishing and Nigeria letters are not spam because it's not commercial but criminal activity? Not everybody would agree. What about selling fake products?
    - withinboredom 5y ago
      You’re getting into fraud territory and leaving spam territory.
undecisive 5y ago
I have a gmail account and a yahoo account. I consider these my spam accounts for anything that doesn't accept email with a + in the name. Over a year ago, I noticed that somebody's paypal was set to my gmail account. They had also used my account for payments to Donald Trump (I was getting hilariously desperate and pleading messages for more donations) Banggood, and Amigo Loans (as guarantor) I was able to get information about different addresses they have lived (Ireland - not sure how many Trump supporters live in Ireland, which was weird), what other email addresses they had, etc. In the end, I logged into their paypal (surprisingly easy) and changed their email address to the correct email address, and emailed them their new password. I still get the odd one-off email from other places, such as a damp report for a property in Hemel Hempstead, but at least I haven't had any more paypal messages. I sometimes wonder about the legality of what I did - obviously I did nothing malicious, but I suspect it contravenes the letter of at least one law. But the thought of being made in some way responsible for the security of someone else's finances filled me with dread.
croon 5y ago
This has been my experience too. I have <lastname>@gmail since 2004, and have for the last decade at least used a separate domain for all my accounts. I haven't noticed many leaks/sales at all of my specific account addresses. I get almost all my spam on my regular gmail, and promotions for companies that my namesakes have signed up for, left my email at a store, etc. I have identified several people from the variety of emails I get, including work/school/personal. > But some of the companies responsible of the subscriptions, like Paypal, are assholes. They allow the creation of accounts without verifying the email, then refuse to admit it's their problem and do something about it. This is my absolute biggest gripe. Someone signed up for AT&T using my email. I contacted their support on facebook, and even after explaining the whole issue they asked my for my phone number, and recommended I call their support. I'm not even in the country. They stopped responding when I pointed that out. While I want to trash AT&T (deservedly), they're unfortunately not alone in that behavior.
shantnutiwari 5y ago
Same with me-- someone used my email to register for Airtel India, and I started getting his bills. Airtel have a complaint/abuse email and I told them about the mistake-- there was a lot of "hoo-hah" but nothing happened. The bills are in encrypted pdf-- but the encryption is trivial to remove. I looked at the bills, its someone with a name similar to mine, just one letter different. I emailed the real person, telling him he had used my email, but got no reply. I just press spam now, and the emails have stopped coming to my inbox. But I still get the emails 6-7 years later. Its mind boggling as how a) Airtel never confirmed the email b) Havent stopped sending even though they've been going to spam for years now
dmje 5y ago
Quite gratifying to read that I'm not alone in this. I was really early into Gmail so have first.last@ and get a lot of stuff emailed to me that is exactly as you describe - not spam, just mistaken address. Hotel reservations, golf clubs, Republican party bullshit, hilarious copies of order receipts from gun shops... (The last one of the above I replied to - it was an order for a rifle scope. I sent what I thought was an obvious joke email back asking whether it'd help me hit my neighbours' puppy at a mile range. The gun shop replied back suggesting an alternative scope... Moral: never apply UK style humour to US situations, especially not about guns...)
- nulbyte 5y ago
  I have the same with Gmail. I get lots of email for firstlast@ because someone can't be bothered to remember the numbers after their username. Then I have also gotten coffee receipts for a cardiologist (he likes Major Dickason's blend), wedding invitations, boating newsletters, and even modeling opportunities in a different country. It amazes me how many people either don't know their email address or can't imagine someone else might have a similar name. Most of the organizations and individuals sending the emails are accommodating. Then there are the likes of Discord, that require you to confirm that you would like to delete "your" account, when it's not even yours. Nevermind that I have no desire to delete someone else's account. They also refuse to write you in English when you tell them you prefer it over Spanish. Luckily; I speak that too.
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    I received a background check result from a job application for a Florida sheriff's office. At least it listed "my" address. :)
  - Pxtl 5y ago
    Relevant xkcd https://xkcd.com/1279/ https://xkcd.com/1279/
    - SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
      I have a goofy/edgy/"I thought it was cool when I signed up for it" address that is NOTHING like anyone's name, but people will absolutely sign up for cell phone plans and stuff with it. What is the plan here people? I could make someone's life utterly miserable if I was so inclined, unless it's a fraudster doing fraud things (I doubt it, the address and name they use has been pretty consistent) I have no idea why you'd put your legitimate information into someone else's hands like that.
richrichardsson 5y ago
I got sent a ton of (quite private) PII from T-Mobile in Holland for some poor schmuck who can't understand that his email address is not a.byss@gmail.com, or alternatively isn't actually putting an email address and some other idiot is deciding, "This guy is called Adrian Byss, his email is probably a.byss@gmail.com". I've had the email abyss@gmail.com* since not long after gmail became available to the public. If I had less scruples I could easily have stolen this man's identity with the amount of information they sent. * obviously this is not my email address, but it demonstrates how the situation arose.
- lbotos 5y ago
  good theory, but dots don't matter in gmail addresses: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en
  - garbagetime 5y ago
    I don't think that contradicts your parent comment's theory
    - lbotos 5y ago
      On re-reading, you are right!
benibela 5y ago
Facebook is the worst: https://imgur.com/jQj1EwE https://imgur.com/jQj1EwE I do not have a facebook account
- oriolid 5y ago
  Someone did the same thing with Facebook to a person I know. She finally went to Facebook, selected "forgot password", changed it and deleted the account. Problem solved.
apricot13 5y ago
yesss more people suffering from this - its so infuriating especially paypal. I mostly get signed up for newsletters but I do actually have the name and address of one of the people who uses my email address. I know its not exactly polite and didn't want to be mean and cancel any orders but I mayyy have logged in and changed her name on the delivery address to "stop using my email address please" and she's never done it again. theres also a teenager at a school in the US using my email address on social media I get a lot of requests to send me freebies! I also apparently have an espn account now, if I liked sports I'd be taking advantage of that one! Even weirder was one time I had RSVP's to a wedding. The couples name was exactly the same as my partners and I's! I had to email the pastor and say I think you have the wrong email address! I've had blood test results, graduation photos, I get emails from this girls doctors. I've contacted them so many times to say I'm not your patient but they don't listen. I also know what car she leases! At this point she must have realised!?
n-i-m-a 5y ago
Similar scenario for me... countless accounts throughout various services, newsletter subscriptions, paid services/subscriptions, tickets, loan requests and confirmations, house deeds & ... I have tried finding the numerous people throughout the world with the same name and surname as me and notifying them and asking them kindly to update their contacts or to stop using mine (name.surname@gmail scenario), some work, some don't. At some point I even started canceling their appointments/subscriptions/closing their accounts, hoping they'd stop but apparently no use. Not a month passes without a few of these emails popping up in my inbox. The most annoying are when I am stuck in a group email with multiple recipients that are replying all.
- rubidium 5y ago
  I have a statistically very uncommon name (there’s like 3 other people with my name who have showed up on the internet) and I’ve still run into this because I use first name.surname@gmail.com. I can’t imagine what it’s like for whoever uses the same naming convention for a super common name.
  - barney54 5y ago
    I receive emails almost every day for various people with my same name in other parts of the US, the UK, and Australia. For ones that matter, like job interviews, I try to let people know they have the wrong email address.
gadders 5y ago
I have firstname.lastname@gmail.com and my name seems to be the same as a beef farmer in Australia. It was mildly amusing to get Aberdeen Angus bull semen auction details, but when I started getting his loan details from a bank I had to reply and tell them.
wccrawford 5y ago
I had this happen to me recently. It turns out there's a highschool somewhere named after someone with my same name. Instead of name50@gmail.com, they put name@gmail.com on some of their advertising for the event, and other people just typed it in wrong and forgot the 50. I got a fair few emails from that, even after telling their coordinator about the problem.
kasey_junk 5y ago
My idiot namesake signed up for his unemployment benefits with my email address. The unemployment agency in his state won’t let me change it or contact the person by mail to have them fix it. He also is down for _any_ sweepstakes and has dubious dating preferences. He’s out there wondering why he never wins anything and no one swipes on his profile.
- noasaservice 5y ago
  Then "forget password" and take the account over.
  - InitialLastName 5y ago
    Even if you're getting misdirected emails, it's probably a bad idea to toe the line into "defrauding a state government" by taking over someone's unemployment login.
darshitpp 4y ago
I've had similar problems, which I posed earlier here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29749715 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29749715
pc86 5y ago
Someone in Australia has my name and I get an email every time he's late on some loan payment, which seems to be once every 4-5 months or so.
lkxijlewlf 5y ago
I get email from businesses for FirstLast@gmail.com but I use First.Last@gmail.com[0] and apparently someone thinks they own that email address. I can tell you what car they drive and where they get their hair cut. [0] dots are not significant so it's basically the same email address and it is mine, but they use it without the dots while I use it with.
chewmieser 5y ago
All the time... I get about 4 different people trying to use my email address, mostly in the US but one in the UK as well. Thankfully the UK guy's wife also made the mistake so I just forward the emails to her now and she's stopped some of it.
gwbas1c 5y ago
I once got someone's COVID test results. I called their doctor immediately and when they acted confused, I quickly told them that they could get in a lot of trouble for HIPA violations because they sent me so much personal information.
ectopod 5y ago
I have the same issue. I do wonder if it's sometimes people who don't have an email address, or don't want to share it. A company insists so they give the obvious gmail address, which is actually mine.
hedora 5y ago
The paypal thing sounds like a perfect use case for the CAN-SPAM act.
a2128 5y ago
I once was on the other side of this. While opening a new bank account, I dictated my email (name.lastname.123@server) to the representative, she entered it and later printed out the agreement. I read the agreement and noticed she entered my email wrong (name.lastname@server). It can be easy to forget the numbers while saying the email out loud, or while entering an email someone else said out loud.
hedora 5y ago
My name is something reasonably rare. There's one other person with the same name in the same industry niche. Occasionally we even have the same giant employer. Every once in a while some fraud detector or email auto complete gets us confused and hilarity ensues.
smhenderson 5y ago
They allow the creation of accounts without verifying the email, then refuse to admit it's their problem and do something about it. This is my biggest issue with what you're talking about. I get annoyed at the clueless users who happen to share my initials and last name but I can forgive them for their ignorance. But, IMHO, any company, in 2022, that uses email for authentication, or for any type of business/financial exchange of information, that doesn't bother to do a simple validation of "do you really own this email?" should not be allowed to continue to operate! I sadly learned long ago that expressing this opinion to their support or security contacts is useless.
Twirrim 5y ago
I've an Aussie namesake who has used my gmail address a few times on sites. I never use my gmail on anything. My spam folder for it is dominated by Australian targetted spam, to a degree I find mildly fascinating. Recently, google/gmail decided to be too helpful. The namesake used my email address when they booked a stay at a hotel (helpfully the hotel made it impossible for me to unsubscribe!) The hotel has sent me a few emails related to the booking, reminders and the like. Google being Google, sees the email, and creates a calendar entry for me. I delete it. The next email comes in, and boom, there's the calendar entry again.
amjd 5y ago
Same here. I have firstname.<digit>@gmail and I keep getting emails for the non-dot variant. And to add to the frustration, in order to unsubscribe some services require you to send an email from the same address. I've never hated Gmail's "convenience" feature of ignoring dots more. If they really wanted to offer it, they should have also given the option of adding/removing dots while sending emails too. Someone even has a Paypal account on my dot-less email. It beats me how a payments company can let somebody add an email without verification and not offer an easy to way to remove it.
intellectronica 5y ago
The opposite problem also exists. I had first.last@gmail.com and indeed got a lot of email that isn't mine. A few years back I switched to token1.token2@gmail.com, where token1 = something vaguely similar but not my first name, and token2 = nonsense word. Basically an address that is something between random string and insider joke. Of course I always include my correct real name in the From: field, fill it correctly in all the relevant fields on forms and have never suggested to anyone that my actual name is "Token1 Token2". Nevertheless it's not uncommon for people to assume that this is my name, and I get people writing to me "Hi Token1," or "Dear Ms. Token2". I even had an expensive electronic item shipped to my correct home address but addressed to Token1 Token2, and returned to sender, since such a person doesn't live here (and likely doesn't exists at all). Some people just don't understand how email addresses work.
ElCapitanMarkla 5y ago
There seem to be three other guys who share my name who all think they share my email. - One guy in London. I get monthly invoices from his daughters childcare centre and the odd email from his solicitor about his investment property. His wife replies to all of these CCing me in too. - A Native American artist who gets a few emails to purchase his work. I don’t mind this one so much, I found his real email and forward everything on to him. - Then there’s this other complete douche in the States. Emails about his car servicing reminders, all sorts of totally boring crap. One time I even got a flight booking for him. I though someone had stolen my credit card info and booked a flight in my name at first. I could click into it and change anything. I could have canceled it. I should have picked terrible seats or preordered the worst thing on the menu for him.
MrMember 5y ago
I have firstinitiallastname@gmail.com and I get all sorts of interesting stuff from other people. Someone even signed up for their bank account using my address and I got all of the emails for that without any sort of verification.

by narag 5y ago

yencabulator 4y ago

Somebody signed up for a dating service with my email address. The website allowed me to log in without entering or resetting the password. So, naturally, I changed their gender preferences.

CamperBob2 5y ago

Same here. I thought I was lucky when I snagged one of the first GMail invites and was able to pick a 5-letter user name. Oops: https://i.imgur.com/Y5c1iIt.png https://i.imgur.com/Y5c1iIt.png

selcuka 5y ago
I thought Gmail didn't allow usernames shorter than 6 characters.
- CamperBob2 5y ago
  Ah, you're right, it's 6 (first initial + 5 character last name.) I can't count...
johnwalkr 5y ago
Same. I even paid about $10 on eBay to snag an early invitation.

skielight 5y ago

I have the exact same issue. My name is quite common and I registered my email address more than 15 years ago, so it looks something like <firstname>@<server>. Now I get phone bills, internet bills, promo emails, subscription emails, two factor emails, and sometimes even bank related emails addressed to someone who shares their first name with me. It's been years now. I've reported the emails, but neither the intended recipients, not the sending organizations seem to care. I agree, my namesakes are idiots too and so are the companies who don't have a simple email verification system. :(

egberts1 5y ago
What I do is log into the billing account and change the email to support@billingcompanyinsertedhere.com Never heard from them again.

gaetgu 5y ago

This is one hundred percent the problem. I got my address back when gmail was invite-only (so its super simple), so I get tons of emails meant for other people.

shiftpgdn 5y ago

Any time I can I login to their accounts and update the email to null@void.com .

jt2190 5y ago
You’re probably joking, but in case you aren’t, don’t put in an address for a registered domain like void.com, as you’ll just be redirecting the spam to them. Instead use the reserved domain example.com.
- c0wb0yc0d3r 5y ago
  I just use the domain of the site the account belongs to. If I'm getting really naughty, I will put sales@<server>
  - bunnyfoofoo 5y ago
    Oooh, I hadn’t thought of sales. I always use support@server whenever a site asks if I want to join their newsletter.

joecot 5y ago

I deal with the same problem with fullname@gmail. My name is very common, surprisingly so if you're not Italian. I get emails for: * A Joe who runs a lego engineering team at his high school * A Joe who goes to bible study in Utah * A Joe who is building a house in Victoria Australia (I'm so familiar with him/others screwing up his email that I can forward it to him and his wife easily.

cproctor 5y ago
In my personal metaverse, I'm really into falconry (I've ordered several leather falcon hoods), I have a commercial truckers license, I'm part of a pushy childrens' soccer league, and am eagerly planning a trip to the holy land. I did get an invite from one of them to play golf together in Wales.
- lelanthran 5y ago
  > In my personal metaverse, I'm really into falconry (I've ordered several leather falcon hoods), I have a commercial truckers license, I'm part of a pushy childrens' soccer league, and am eagerly planning a trip to the holy land. I did get an invite from one of them to play golf together in Wales. Your targetted ads must be really interesting :-) The silver lining is, of course, that no one has yet built an accurate profile of you ...
hdkrgr 5y ago
For me, it's a Shawn in Colorado who goes to bible study, renovates houses, and signs (me!) up for every Republican newsletter he can find. Also: When I use Facebook's feature "show data that others have uploaded about you" (or similar), it is full of this guy's stuff that was provided to facebook (and attributed to me) by businesses this guy has relationships with. Nothing I can do to remove it.

Brajeshwar 5y ago

LOL. So, my name is a pretty standard Indian name and many a lot do not confirm their email addresses (Banks, Insurances, etc). India's default email provider is, of course, GMAIL (even government officials use it). I was one of the early distributor of Gmail invites (I invited a lot) and I own brajeshwar@gmail.com Now, I get Bank Statements, Credit Card, Health, Insurance and whatnot for over 5+ "Brajeshwar"s in India. I just ignore them as I use my GMAIL ID just for newsletter subscriptions and ramnants of the old Internet but I do check once a week during my weekly digital chores.

Marsymars 5y ago
> I do check once a week during my weekly digital chores. OT, but I’m going to start using “digital chores”. When my partner asks what I’m doing and I answer “paperwork” it doesn’t sound quite right.

johnwalkr 5y ago

I have the same problem and at least once a week someone tries to recover the password to “their” email address. I’ve gotten unlimited spam which my provider usually deals with well but sometimes there are periods of days where 5+ per hour get through. I’ve gotten dick pics and all kinds of receipts. I have hotel logins with the wrong name assigned because I could only make accounts by recovering one someone else made (so my hotel receipts have the wrong name on them). I used to reply to misaddressed mail when it amused me. I used to string along a whole family of people that included me in group emails with racist Obama memes and pictures bragging of poaching. I stopped replying to these when in another case I was asked to tell estranged and family member that their sister had cancer since I was the only one still in contact with her. I did inform them they had the wrong address at that point. I’m still on a mailing list for senior members of a local police department and even was sent logon/passwords to some of their systems but I’ve learned not to try to correct these things, it’s just too much of a hassle. In the case of Venmo and Verizon I couldn’t get it fixed even with phone calls.

dfee 5y ago
Maybe this is why I’ve received upwards of 500 requests to reset my Instagram password over the last year?

2bluesc 5y ago

I had an entire Comcast account registered to someone with the same name in another part of the state that took me years to get rid of. Could even login with my email address because he registered it to my account and somehow the email side stepped verification. Imagine dealing with Comcast customer support. Then imagine not even being a customer anymore trying to get this resolved. Now imagine explaining how you're not the person on the account yet have the same name and how this is a huge privacy/security violation. Took years to get rid of. One day I'm waiting for a silly collections bill or something to show up in "my" name for the other person.

bestnameever 5y ago
I've had this with credit card accounts. It usually gets settled pretty quickly when I escalate it to fraud or security.

starwind 5y ago

There's a <starwind> in Australia so occasionally I get stuff for <starwind>@gmail.com. I got his golf club membership info sent to my email address. I've gotten his dinner reservation info sent to my email address. For like 2 months I got his paystub sent to my email address. I really wish I could get his phone bill sent to my email address so I could call and tell him he could have gotten a larger raise

noufalibrahim 5y ago

I got my gmail account early and was able to get my first name at gmail.com. My name is fairly popular in my part of the world and everyone who has it uses my email address as a throwaway since they actually authenticate using a phone number. I have matrimonials, visa applications, leave applications, uber accounts, SaaS subscriptions, porn subscriptions, random newsletters and what not. My gmail account is all but unusable now.

switchbak 5y ago
I have the same, but less volume than you. I've had VERY confidential mail sent to me, and one time someone even tried to send me 1500 bucks, but alas I didn't know the password for the transfer :) Sometimes I get so annoyed I do a password reset on their accounts. Gotta learn some how.
- noufalibrahim 5y ago
  I've done that too. Password resets.
lelanthran 5y ago
> I got my gmail account early and was able to get my first name at gmail.com. Same here. But my first name is so unusual that I have literally not found anyone else on the internet with my first name. Any and all searches for my first name (and nothing else) have results that point to me.

ValentineC 5y ago

> But some of the companies responsible of the subscriptions, like Paypal, are assholes. They allow the creation of accounts without verifying the email, then refuse to admit it's their problem and do something about it. +1. My OG name email has been mistakenly registered for a PayPal account, but there's no way I can go about disavowing the account, or removing my email address from it.

_s 5y ago
I’ve had a few folks use my email. This is going to prove wildly unpopular but I just reset the password using the email, go in and delete the account (or submit a ticket with support to do so). They can make a new one with their own email if it’s important.
- hamburglar 5y ago
  Not wildly unpopular with me. I’ve canceled multiple Netflix accounts using my $firstInitial$lastName@gmail account. My excuse if they ever challenged me would be to say I thought it was fraudulent because I didn’t set it up and I didn’t want my email to be the only contact method. Edit: there is one boost mobile customer who has done this to me and I can’t figure out the exact address they used (the thing where you can add periods gives a lot of possibilities), and I really wish I could password reset and close this account because approximately every other month for years I get late payment notices, then impending cutoff notices, then cutoff notices, then “thank you for your payment your service has been restored” notices. It’s both sad and annoying and I finally just black-holed everything from boost mobile and hope I never decide to be their customer in the future because troubleshooting mail delivery problems when I’ve forgotten about this will drive me insane.
  - bee_rider 5y ago
    I have had this happen to me as well. It was pretty annoying. Somebody used my name for a Twitch account. I wanted to do things the 'right way' so I didn't verify the email, didn't log in and change their password -- I contacted customer support instead (mostly just to see how it would work -- I have a very unusual name, so this is a kind of rare event for me). It took them, I think, years to delete the thing. I've never really been 100% sure if changing the password and logging in to delete the account would violate the CFAA. I mean nobody would have gone after me for a Twitch account anyway, and I'd definitely have felt moral deleting the thing, but the letter of the law...

Semaphor 5y ago

Yeah, I have firstlast@gmail.com with an extremely common German name. I’m on some investor list for a biotech company, I’ve received patent applications and internal discussions, holiday pictures, quotes for everything from building houses to repairing things. I don’t even use gmail anymore, but I keep looking into what kind of fun emails I get (and I report every opt-out-only newsletter, which includes Google Fiber and some US Democratic Party thing, as spam).

Natsu 5y ago

I get random invoices in languages I don't even speak due to something similar.

brenainn 5y ago

I was getting some dude's email for about 7 years. Started with newsletters and discussion threads for a journalism guild and a teacher's union. I found that amusing and left it, but one day emailed whoever was in charge and let them know I'm not the intended recipient. Stopped for a while and then it started again and I ignored it. But in the last few years I started getting hotel reservations, golf course membership, bills, orders for liver supplements. I tracked down who it is ages ago and sent them an email (I was cordial - "Hey we have such similar names but I'm on the other side of the world, crazy huh?") and got no response. Eventually I replied to the liver pill people and said "Hey this isn't me and if you could let the actual person know that'd be great" and the emails stopped. Way to go liver pill people.

jusssi 5y ago
I have my own domain that I used to use for hosting random stuff and my email (nowadays it's just for the email). The email is a catch-all box. I once got someone and their family's Disney World booking details sent to <theirname>@<mydomain>. It was a real thing, I could click the link and go view their booking at the official website. I have no idea what made that person to type out <mydomain> as their email, the domain is not even close to any publicly hosted email services or any company names. I kept getting more notifications of the upcoming Disney World trip so I ended up disabling that particular address so that those emails bounce.
croon 5y ago
> I was getting some dude's email for about 7 years. Started with newsletters and discussion threads for a journalism guild and a teacher's union. I found that amusing and left it, but one day emailed whoever was in charge and let them know I'm not the intended recipient. Stopped for a while and then it started again and I ignored it. I had a similar experience, funnily enough golf course memberships too. Doing minimal OSI work on the numerous emails I found the guy on facebook and friended him (accepted due to same surname I assume). I remember saying something like: "Hi, I noticed you just signed up for an Epic Games account, and you happened to use my email address <lastname>@gmail. Would you mind not doing that, please?" He responded that I was a creep and that it was his email, and proceeded to block me. I mean he might've been right on the former, but patently wrong on the latter.

20after4 5y ago

Someone decided to start a weed business in Spokane Washington using my gmail address as their business email contact for all of the greenery suppliers. Now I get tons and tons of marijuana-related spam. I guess they are too stoned to tell the difference between 20 and twenty? I don't know.

digisign 5y ago
A lawyer in Texas has the same initials as I. Their domain is the same as mine + "law" at the end. Guess how many of her clients forget the "law"?
BoxOfRain 5y ago
That would stress me out! I'm a completely legitimate medical cannabis patient in the UK and I still get nervous about reading emails from the clinic when I'm at work.

invaliduser 5y ago

Same here. My name is very common and I have an email similar to John Smith <smith.jj@gmail.com>, and I have around 10 people around the world named like me or similarly that use my email for everything. I receive, almost weekly, paid invoices, flight tickets, appointment reminders, a teen soccer club newsletter, new instagram accounts, etc anything you can imagine really. A few years ago I tried to contact some of my other selfs to ask them to mind their email, but never got any response. I'm just ignoring them now or hitting the spam button (after all, the senders should have a process to check the address instead of taking erroneous email addresses written by hand on paper).

Moru 5y ago
My wife has had the same problem for a long time. What finaly got through was to contact one of the travel agencies to point out that she got plane tickets in someone elses name and to please talk to this woman that she has the wrong idea about her email adress. Has been quiet for a few years now.
wyclif 5y ago
My real surname isn't a common one, so I went ahead and grabbed mysurname@gmail.com in March 2004 when Evan Williams sent me a Gmail invite. But my surname is English and one that is predominately found in the UK, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. So I sometimes get invoices, signups, verifications, and other junk from someplace in Australia and those other English-speaking countries. I've also found it's a waste of time to correct it. Once an address is "out there" in the wild, it's going to get passed around.

raverbashing 5y ago

> They allow the creation of accounts without verifying the email, then refuse to admit it's their problem and do something about it. Add Discord to the list. Use an account with an unverified mail? Fine by us! Go and try to actually verify the mail? Alarm bells go off and the acct locks up (sorry, not sorry for the owner of that acct)

DavidSJ 5y ago

This happens to me all the time. Perhaps the most amusing instance went as follows (quoted verbatim, with identifying information omitted): This email is regarding: []. Class: MATH 7 ADVANCED Prd: 2 Teacher: [] ----------------------------------------------- Good evening, please check [] for missing work, complete it and submit it. Let me know if you have questions or need any help or anything opened up or more tries. Remember the Ch. 3 test due today. Thank you, Mrs. [] I replied: I think you've got the wrong email address. Thanks, David The teacher then replied: My apologies. You are correct. Your son is crushing it :) and I failed to take him off the group email. Thank you so much for letting me know and keep up the great work! Again, I apologize for the inconvenience. Mrs. [] I then replied: Thanks! Only one thing: I don't have a son.

usr1106 5y ago

> where all the spam comes from The problem is the word spam. What you describe, misdirected mail from completely legal businesses is not really spam, even if it is junk for you personally. There is aggressive marketing of very vaguely related products you have actually registered for. There is marketing of illegal products mostly using harvested addresses. There is phishing often using stolen addresses. If you want to understand the problem as the OP obviously does just speaking of spam is not helpful.

narag 5y ago
What you describe... Those persons give my address all over the place. Don't you understand the implication? Also using unverified addresses by Paypal and other assholes is irresponsible and honestly I can't see why it isn't spam. Edit: Add Netflix to the assholes list. I've just reset the password for another idiot.
withinboredom 5y ago
Spam has a legal definition: Unsolicited commercial messages. If the actual receiver didn’t solicit the message, it is spam. It doesn’t matter if the business is legitimate or not, if anything it makes it worse because the FTC occasionally does fine companies for sending spam. Legally, you have to verify the email address before sending any further messages. If you don’t, you open yourself up to some serious fines if and when the FTC or whomever decides they want to make an example of you.
- usr1106 5y ago
  So phishing and Nigeria letters are not spam because it's not commercial but criminal activity? Not everybody would agree. What about selling fake products?
  - withinboredom 5y ago
    You’re getting into fraud territory and leaving spam territory.

undecisive 5y ago

I have a gmail account and a yahoo account. I consider these my spam accounts for anything that doesn't accept email with a + in the name. Over a year ago, I noticed that somebody's paypal was set to my gmail account. They had also used my account for payments to Donald Trump (I was getting hilariously desperate and pleading messages for more donations) Banggood, and Amigo Loans (as guarantor) I was able to get information about different addresses they have lived (Ireland - not sure how many Trump supporters live in Ireland, which was weird), what other email addresses they had, etc. In the end, I logged into their paypal (surprisingly easy) and changed their email address to the correct email address, and emailed them their new password. I still get the odd one-off email from other places, such as a damp report for a property in Hemel Hempstead, but at least I haven't had any more paypal messages. I sometimes wonder about the legality of what I did - obviously I did nothing malicious, but I suspect it contravenes the letter of at least one law. But the thought of being made in some way responsible for the security of someone else's finances filled me with dread.

croon 5y ago

This has been my experience too. I have <lastname>@gmail since 2004, and have for the last decade at least used a separate domain for all my accounts. I haven't noticed many leaks/sales at all of my specific account addresses. I get almost all my spam on my regular gmail, and promotions for companies that my namesakes have signed up for, left my email at a store, etc. I have identified several people from the variety of emails I get, including work/school/personal. > But some of the companies responsible of the subscriptions, like Paypal, are assholes. They allow the creation of accounts without verifying the email, then refuse to admit it's their problem and do something about it. This is my absolute biggest gripe. Someone signed up for AT&T using my email. I contacted their support on facebook, and even after explaining the whole issue they asked my for my phone number, and recommended I call their support. I'm not even in the country. They stopped responding when I pointed that out. While I want to trash AT&T (deservedly), they're unfortunately not alone in that behavior.

shantnutiwari 5y ago

Same with me-- someone used my email to register for Airtel India, and I started getting his bills. Airtel have a complaint/abuse email and I told them about the mistake-- there was a lot of "hoo-hah" but nothing happened. The bills are in encrypted pdf-- but the encryption is trivial to remove. I looked at the bills, its someone with a name similar to mine, just one letter different. I emailed the real person, telling him he had used my email, but got no reply. I just press spam now, and the emails have stopped coming to my inbox. But I still get the emails 6-7 years later. Its mind boggling as how a) Airtel never confirmed the email b) Havent stopped sending even though they've been going to spam for years now

dmje 5y ago

Quite gratifying to read that I'm not alone in this. I was really early into Gmail so have first.last@ and get a lot of stuff emailed to me that is exactly as you describe - not spam, just mistaken address. Hotel reservations, golf clubs, Republican party bullshit, hilarious copies of order receipts from gun shops... (The last one of the above I replied to - it was an order for a rifle scope. I sent what I thought was an obvious joke email back asking whether it'd help me hit my neighbours' puppy at a mile range. The gun shop replied back suggesting an alternative scope... Moral: never apply UK style humour to US situations, especially not about guns...)

nulbyte 5y ago
I have the same with Gmail. I get lots of email for firstlast@ because someone can't be bothered to remember the numbers after their username. Then I have also gotten coffee receipts for a cardiologist (he likes Major Dickason's blend), wedding invitations, boating newsletters, and even modeling opportunities in a different country. It amazes me how many people either don't know their email address or can't imagine someone else might have a similar name. Most of the organizations and individuals sending the emails are accommodating. Then there are the likes of Discord, that require you to confirm that you would like to delete "your" account, when it's not even yours. Nevermind that I have no desire to delete someone else's account. They also refuse to write you in English when you tell them you prefer it over Spanish. Luckily; I speak that too.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  I received a background check result from a job application for a Florida sheriff's office. At least it listed "my" address. :)
- Pxtl 5y ago
  Relevant xkcd https://xkcd.com/1279/ https://xkcd.com/1279/
  - SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
    I have a goofy/edgy/"I thought it was cool when I signed up for it" address that is NOTHING like anyone's name, but people will absolutely sign up for cell phone plans and stuff with it. What is the plan here people? I could make someone's life utterly miserable if I was so inclined, unless it's a fraudster doing fraud things (I doubt it, the address and name they use has been pretty consistent) I have no idea why you'd put your legitimate information into someone else's hands like that.

richrichardsson 5y ago

I got sent a ton of (quite private) PII from T-Mobile in Holland for some poor schmuck who can't understand that his email address is not a.byss@gmail.com, or alternatively isn't actually putting an email address and some other idiot is deciding, "This guy is called Adrian Byss, his email is probably a.byss@gmail.com". I've had the email abyss@gmail.com* since not long after gmail became available to the public. If I had less scruples I could easily have stolen this man's identity with the amount of information they sent. * obviously this is not my email address, but it demonstrates how the situation arose.

lbotos 5y ago
good theory, but dots don't matter in gmail addresses: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en
- garbagetime 5y ago
  I don't think that contradicts your parent comment's theory
  - lbotos 5y ago
    On re-reading, you are right!

benibela 5y ago

Facebook is the worst: https://imgur.com/jQj1EwE https://imgur.com/jQj1EwE I do not have a facebook account

oriolid 5y ago
Someone did the same thing with Facebook to a person I know. She finally went to Facebook, selected "forgot password", changed it and deleted the account. Problem solved.

apricot13 5y ago

yesss more people suffering from this - its so infuriating especially paypal. I mostly get signed up for newsletters but I do actually have the name and address of one of the people who uses my email address. I know its not exactly polite and didn't want to be mean and cancel any orders but I mayyy have logged in and changed her name on the delivery address to "stop using my email address please" and she's never done it again. theres also a teenager at a school in the US using my email address on social media I get a lot of requests to send me freebies! I also apparently have an espn account now, if I liked sports I'd be taking advantage of that one! Even weirder was one time I had RSVP's to a wedding. The couples name was exactly the same as my partners and I's! I had to email the pastor and say I think you have the wrong email address! I've had blood test results, graduation photos, I get emails from this girls doctors. I've contacted them so many times to say I'm not your patient but they don't listen. I also know what car she leases! At this point she must have realised!?

n-i-m-a 5y ago

Similar scenario for me... countless accounts throughout various services, newsletter subscriptions, paid services/subscriptions, tickets, loan requests and confirmations, house deeds & ... I have tried finding the numerous people throughout the world with the same name and surname as me and notifying them and asking them kindly to update their contacts or to stop using mine (name.surname@gmail scenario), some work, some don't. At some point I even started canceling their appointments/subscriptions/closing their accounts, hoping they'd stop but apparently no use. Not a month passes without a few of these emails popping up in my inbox. The most annoying are when I am stuck in a group email with multiple recipients that are replying all.

rubidium 5y ago
I have a statistically very uncommon name (there’s like 3 other people with my name who have showed up on the internet) and I’ve still run into this because I use first name.surname@gmail.com. I can’t imagine what it’s like for whoever uses the same naming convention for a super common name.
- barney54 5y ago
  I receive emails almost every day for various people with my same name in other parts of the US, the UK, and Australia. For ones that matter, like job interviews, I try to let people know they have the wrong email address.

gadders 5y ago

I have firstname.lastname@gmail.com and my name seems to be the same as a beef farmer in Australia. It was mildly amusing to get Aberdeen Angus bull semen auction details, but when I started getting his loan details from a bank I had to reply and tell them.

wccrawford 5y ago

I had this happen to me recently. It turns out there's a highschool somewhere named after someone with my same name. Instead of name50@gmail.com, they put name@gmail.com on some of their advertising for the event, and other people just typed it in wrong and forgot the 50. I got a fair few emails from that, even after telling their coordinator about the problem.

kasey_junk 5y ago

My idiot namesake signed up for his unemployment benefits with my email address. The unemployment agency in his state won’t let me change it or contact the person by mail to have them fix it. He also is down for _any_ sweepstakes and has dubious dating preferences. He’s out there wondering why he never wins anything and no one swipes on his profile.

noasaservice 5y ago
Then "forget password" and take the account over.
- InitialLastName 5y ago
  Even if you're getting misdirected emails, it's probably a bad idea to toe the line into "defrauding a state government" by taking over someone's unemployment login.

darshitpp 4y ago

I've had similar problems, which I posed earlier here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29749715 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29749715

pc86 5y ago

Someone in Australia has my name and I get an email every time he's late on some loan payment, which seems to be once every 4-5 months or so.

lkxijlewlf 5y ago

I get email from businesses for FirstLast@gmail.com but I use First.Last@gmail.com[0] and apparently someone thinks they own that email address. I can tell you what car they drive and where they get their hair cut. [0] dots are not significant so it's basically the same email address and it is mine, but they use it without the dots while I use it with.

chewmieser 5y ago

All the time... I get about 4 different people trying to use my email address, mostly in the US but one in the UK as well. Thankfully the UK guy's wife also made the mistake so I just forward the emails to her now and she's stopped some of it.

gwbas1c 5y ago

I once got someone's COVID test results. I called their doctor immediately and when they acted confused, I quickly told them that they could get in a lot of trouble for HIPA violations because they sent me so much personal information.

ectopod 5y ago

I have the same issue. I do wonder if it's sometimes people who don't have an email address, or don't want to share it. A company insists so they give the obvious gmail address, which is actually mine.

hedora 5y ago

The paypal thing sounds like a perfect use case for the CAN-SPAM act.

a2128 5y ago

I once was on the other side of this. While opening a new bank account, I dictated my email (name.lastname.123@server) to the representative, she entered it and later printed out the agreement. I read the agreement and noticed she entered my email wrong (name.lastname@server). It can be easy to forget the numbers while saying the email out loud, or while entering an email someone else said out loud.

hedora 5y ago

My name is something reasonably rare. There's one other person with the same name in the same industry niche. Occasionally we even have the same giant employer. Every once in a while some fraud detector or email auto complete gets us confused and hilarity ensues.

smhenderson 5y ago

They allow the creation of accounts without verifying the email, then refuse to admit it's their problem and do something about it. This is my biggest issue with what you're talking about. I get annoyed at the clueless users who happen to share my initials and last name but I can forgive them for their ignorance. But, IMHO, any company, in 2022, that uses email for authentication, or for any type of business/financial exchange of information, that doesn't bother to do a simple validation of "do you really own this email?" should not be allowed to continue to operate! I sadly learned long ago that expressing this opinion to their support or security contacts is useless.

Twirrim 5y ago

I've an Aussie namesake who has used my gmail address a few times on sites. I never use my gmail on anything. My spam folder for it is dominated by Australian targetted spam, to a degree I find mildly fascinating. Recently, google/gmail decided to be too helpful. The namesake used my email address when they booked a stay at a hotel (helpfully the hotel made it impossible for me to unsubscribe!) The hotel has sent me a few emails related to the booking, reminders and the like. Google being Google, sees the email, and creates a calendar entry for me. I delete it. The next email comes in, and boom, there's the calendar entry again.

amjd 5y ago

Same here. I have firstname.<digit>@gmail and I keep getting emails for the non-dot variant. And to add to the frustration, in order to unsubscribe some services require you to send an email from the same address. I've never hated Gmail's "convenience" feature of ignoring dots more. If they really wanted to offer it, they should have also given the option of adding/removing dots while sending emails too. Someone even has a Paypal account on my dot-less email. It beats me how a payments company can let somebody add an email without verification and not offer an easy to way to remove it.

intellectronica 5y ago

The opposite problem also exists. I had first.last@gmail.com and indeed got a lot of email that isn't mine. A few years back I switched to token1.token2@gmail.com, where token1 = something vaguely similar but not my first name, and token2 = nonsense word. Basically an address that is something between random string and insider joke. Of course I always include my correct real name in the From: field, fill it correctly in all the relevant fields on forms and have never suggested to anyone that my actual name is "Token1 Token2". Nevertheless it's not uncommon for people to assume that this is my name, and I get people writing to me "Hi Token1," or "Dear Ms. Token2". I even had an expensive electronic item shipped to my correct home address but addressed to Token1 Token2, and returned to sender, since such a person doesn't live here (and likely doesn't exists at all). Some people just don't understand how email addresses work.

ElCapitanMarkla 5y ago

There seem to be three other guys who share my name who all think they share my email. - One guy in London. I get monthly invoices from his daughters childcare centre and the odd email from his solicitor about his investment property. His wife replies to all of these CCing me in too. - A Native American artist who gets a few emails to purchase his work. I don’t mind this one so much, I found his real email and forward everything on to him. - Then there’s this other complete douche in the States. Emails about his car servicing reminders, all sorts of totally boring crap. One time I even got a flight booking for him. I though someone had stolen my credit card info and booked a flight in my name at first. I could click into it and change anything. I could have canceled it. I should have picked terrible seats or preordered the worst thing on the menu for him.

MrMember 5y ago

I have firstinitiallastname@gmail.com and I get all sorts of interesting stuff from other people. Someone even signed up for their bank account using my address and I got all of the emails for that without any sort of verification.