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That's something I don't understand. I've always given my email as john.doe@gmail.com, and I sometimes receive emails - addressed to Another John Doe - sent to

That's something I don't understand. I've always given my email as john.doe@gmail.com, and I sometimes receive emails - addressed to Another John Doe - sent to johndoe@gmail.com. That Another John Doe never, ever had access to johndoe@gmail.com, they just gave a wrong address. That's not gmail's fault.

ghaff 4y ago
Or someone assumed (or just tried) that other email address. I signed up for my university's email forwarding for alumni early on and got my first name as my email. For quite a while, I would get emails, including fairly sensitive ones, sent to me by not yet very email savvy people just assuming you could send an email to someone's first name and it would get to them.
- derefr 4y ago
  Nah, it happens with mangled names that no bot would ever try to stuff, too. E.g. I own derefr@gmail; but I sometimes receive email from people trying to reach a man named "Derek" — who almost certainly owns the address derek.fr@gmail, but probably typoed it once as dere.fr@, and now his browser autocompletes that into registration forms for him.
- scambier 4y ago
  > Or someone assumed (or just tried) that other email address. I received 2-3 personal emails, but most of them are automated invoices.
alistairSH 4y ago
That Another John Doe never, ever had access to johndoe@gmail.com, they just gave a wrong address. That's not gmail's fault. This. My wife and I have two flavors of this. Her address is firstmlast@gmail.com. There people frequently forget the m initial and somebody else owns firstlast@gmail.com She's since started using dots first.m.last to mitigate the error. My address is firstlast@gmail, where first and last are not globally common, but are fairly common in Scotland. Once a year or so, I receive email for somebody else that shares my name. I don' know his real email, but I've been "invited" on his family vacations 3-4 times now. Infrequent enough that I just respond "thanks for the invite, but I think you'll be disappointed when I arrive and not the Alistair you were expecting."
- rovr138 4y ago
  I have a friend that has firstmlast@ and she's friends with firstlast@ because of how common the issue is. It's actually not a super common first and last, so firstlast@ knows when to who to forward.

ghaff 4y ago

Or someone assumed (or just tried) that other email address. I signed up for my university's email forwarding for alumni early on and got my first name as my email. For quite a while, I would get emails, including fairly sensitive ones, sent to me by not yet very email savvy people just assuming you could send an email to someone's first name and it would get to them.

derefr 4y ago
Nah, it happens with mangled names that no bot would ever try to stuff, too. E.g. I own derefr@gmail; but I sometimes receive email from people trying to reach a man named "Derek" — who almost certainly owns the address derek.fr@gmail, but probably typoed it once as dere.fr@, and now his browser autocompletes that into registration forms for him.
scambier 4y ago
> Or someone assumed (or just tried) that other email address. I received 2-3 personal emails, but most of them are automated invoices.

alistairSH 4y ago

That Another John Doe never, ever had access to johndoe@gmail.com, they just gave a wrong address. That's not gmail's fault. This. My wife and I have two flavors of this. Her address is firstmlast@gmail.com. There people frequently forget the m initial and somebody else owns firstlast@gmail.com She's since started using dots first.m.last to mitigate the error. My address is firstlast@gmail, where first and last are not globally common, but are fairly common in Scotland. Once a year or so, I receive email for somebody else that shares my name. I don' know his real email, but I've been "invited" on his family vacations 3-4 times now. Infrequent enough that I just respond "thanks for the invite, but I think you'll be disappointed when I arrive and not the Alistair you were expecting."

rovr138 4y ago
I have a friend that has firstmlast@ and she's friends with firstlast@ because of how common the issue is. It's actually not a super common first and last, so firstlast@ knows when to who to forward.