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One problem I've encountered is that usually sites won't allow you to register an account if the email address is already registered at that site. So if I regis

One problem I've encountered is that usually sites won't allow you to register an account if the email address is already registered at that site. So if I register foo@gmail.com then someone else can't accidentally register foo@gmail.com. But they can register f.o.o@gmail.com just fine. So I mean at my Gmail I have all manner of different Facebook accounts with various misspelling of my email address notifying me of stuff, none of them are mine. I'm sure they entered my email address (with dots) by accident, not on purpose. I appreciate that sites not allowing you to register the same email address twice hardly solves everything, as I absolutely get email to my actual correct Gmail address from random sites I've never signed up for. But at least it would help in certain cases like Facebook where I do have an account.

venusenvy47 3y ago
I don't understand how someone could sign up for a site with f.o.o@gmail.com in this example. That person would never receive email from the site (like a confirmation), because the foo@gmail.com owner would receive the confirmation. Doesn't Facebook require confirmation before the account is created?
londons_explore 3y ago
I think you just chose an insufficiently unique email address. I never get any of these problems.
- beardyw 3y ago
  Mr Foo and I thought having an email address for our name was a great idea, but it does tend to attract mistaken addresses.
juergbi 3y ago
Doesn't Facebook require users to verify the email address with a confirmation email? If so, the only Facebook spam you should be able to get would be such confirmation emails. Or what am I missing?
- Taniwha 3y ago
  Oh I wish that were true, I've been receiving email for years for someone who signed up to facebook with my email address. It's a horrible pain, you can't contact facebook without a facebook account, and I can't create one because someone already has one with my email address.
  - InsomniacL 3y ago
    Recover the account if you own the email address?
    - Taniwha 3y ago
      (see my reply above)
  - Aaargh20318 3y ago
    Do a password recovery, log in and simply delete the account. I had to do this once when someone signed up to FB with my email address. It actually was an eye opening experience as to how much data FB collects from everyone. Now keep in mind that: 1) I don't have a FB account myself 2) This person signed up with my email address (which is <something-generic>@gmail.com), but their name is completely different from mine 3) They didn't even speak the same language, when I logged in to the new account the whole thing was in Swedish or something like it. So nothing at all linking the account to me, except a misspelled e-mail address. When I logged in, FB was happy to suggest I friend a whole bunch of people I know IRL. Including people that do not know the e-mail address used. Absolutely crazy. How were they able to link me to these people when I was signed in to a complete stranger's account?
    - Taniwha 3y ago
      Well I sort of did, didn't want to delete the guy's stuff, so I made a dummy gmail account, switched it to that and deleted the gmail account after weeks of spam emails and trying to contact facebook I figured he could do some of the hard work to get his account back. Of course it backfired, after he stopped using his account facebook and a couple of weeks facebook started sending begging emails to my email account again (don't believe them when they say they delete anything), I still get the occasional "what you've missed on FB" emails and about once a year the guy tries to recover his account and I get an email, I'd drop him a note, but the only email address I have for him is mine
jug 3y ago
LOL this reminds me of a hilarious bug (but only in hindsight!) I had with Discord just three days ago! I tried to login to Discord. It detected a novel browser or location. Sure, this stuff can happen. It wanted to confirm that I was still me and asked me for my e-mail address. I gave it and it said "This e-mail address is already registered". What. Of course it is. It's me. Mine. The one I have registered with you. Since I have a few useful things tied to Discord, I felt my pulse go up. I googled for answers, found a Reddit thread with this specific problem. They said "Hey, if you use Gmail you can use the dots-are-ignored-feature to give Discord a "new" mail that will still go to you, allowing you to verify it!" (https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/12makhd/verify_email_already_registered/ https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/12makhd/verify_...) Sounded clever so I gave it a fore.name.sur.name@gmail.com variant. Sure enough, I got the mail. I logged in. I gasped as I realized Discord had now created a new, empty user for me! It somehow thought I was a brand new user despite this was only a user account _verification_ due to changed IP or whatever to begin with. I tried logging in to my original account once more and now I somehow got in! The verification on my new account had somehow triggered (cookie? I have no idea) that I was trustworthy again. Phew! I promptly deleted the new-account-going-to-same-mail and breathed normally again...
- Panzer04 3y ago
  I've done this at least twice for the same reasons, and it's lead to me pulling my number off discord twice now. It's stupid how similar logging in and creating an account look.
- alduin32 3y ago
  > I promptly deleted the new-account-going-to-same-mail and breathed normally again... I think at that point I would just have been too scared that this would cascade-delete the old account as well ^^
- TheHumanist 3y ago
  I hadn't thought of getting possibly locked out of Discord for something so stupid. I have so much going on in there as far as dev comms... That makes me nervous now. Is there a way to export anything just in case?
galactus 3y ago
I have exactly the same problem, and it has made my gmail account almost unusable. I have at least 150 unwanted emails per day (80% of them get caught by the spam filter)
InsomniacL 3y ago
I don't understand how anyone else can register a facebook account with f.o.o@gmail.com if you own it just as much as you own foo@gmail.com.
- adrianmsmith 3y ago
  The trouble is that Facebook doesn't know every email providers rules and which email addresses the email provider considers equivalent. So for Facebook, foo@gmail.com and f.o.o@gmail.com are two separate addresses (and indeed foo@hotmail.com and f.o.o@hotmail.com probably really are two separate addresses probably controlled by two different people). You're right that if Facebook required the email to be verified (by sending an email to it) before it could be used with Facebook then two different people wouldn't be able to have two separate Facebook accounts with one of them having an email address controlled by someone else. However, Facebook, in order to "reduce friction" and "reduce time to first value" is happy for you to use an unverified email address and they're happy to send a variety of emails to that address (including lots of emails telling you to finally verify that address).
  - InsomniacL 3y ago
    That's not true. I've just gone to facebook clicked register new account Entered Name, DOB, Email Now I'm stuck, can't proceed past "Enter the code from your email" and going to https://facebook.com https://facebook.com in a new browser tab takes be back to the "enter code from email page". I doubt they will send any chaser emails but I will report back in some time
    - c0pium 3y ago
      I just did the same thing with the opposite behavior, you’re probably coming from a bad internet neighborhood. Facebook does a lot of reputation stuff in their login and onboarding flows.
    - adrianmsmith 3y ago
      I see, interesting! Maybe they've changed their system. Thanks for looking into this!
nmeofthestate 3y ago
Bear in mind that since there are a lot of websites (hundreds at least), and you haven't signed up to all of them, you can end up getting emails from websites you didn't sign up for even, when you're not using Gmail. I doubt it makes this minor problem appreciably worse
jeroenhd 3y ago
Facebook shouldn't be sending you those emails at all, to be honest, assuming you never clicked the verification button. That said, clicking the "report spam" button should allow you to unsubscribe from such emails without dealing with logins or whatnot. Gmail supports certain unsubscribe headers that'll automate the process, which should make getting rid of Facebook's spam a lot easier.

venusenvy47 3y ago

I don't understand how someone could sign up for a site with f.o.o@gmail.com in this example. That person would never receive email from the site (like a confirmation), because the foo@gmail.com owner would receive the confirmation. Doesn't Facebook require confirmation before the account is created?

londons_explore 3y ago

I think you just chose an insufficiently unique email address. I never get any of these problems.

beardyw 3y ago
Mr Foo and I thought having an email address for our name was a great idea, but it does tend to attract mistaken addresses.

juergbi 3y ago

Doesn't Facebook require users to verify the email address with a confirmation email? If so, the only Facebook spam you should be able to get would be such confirmation emails. Or what am I missing?

Taniwha 3y ago
Oh I wish that were true, I've been receiving email for years for someone who signed up to facebook with my email address. It's a horrible pain, you can't contact facebook without a facebook account, and I can't create one because someone already has one with my email address.
- InsomniacL 3y ago
  Recover the account if you own the email address?
  - Taniwha 3y ago
    (see my reply above)
- Aaargh20318 3y ago
  Do a password recovery, log in and simply delete the account. I had to do this once when someone signed up to FB with my email address. It actually was an eye opening experience as to how much data FB collects from everyone. Now keep in mind that: 1) I don't have a FB account myself 2) This person signed up with my email address (which is <something-generic>@gmail.com), but their name is completely different from mine 3) They didn't even speak the same language, when I logged in to the new account the whole thing was in Swedish or something like it. So nothing at all linking the account to me, except a misspelled e-mail address. When I logged in, FB was happy to suggest I friend a whole bunch of people I know IRL. Including people that do not know the e-mail address used. Absolutely crazy. How were they able to link me to these people when I was signed in to a complete stranger's account?
  - Taniwha 3y ago
    Well I sort of did, didn't want to delete the guy's stuff, so I made a dummy gmail account, switched it to that and deleted the gmail account after weeks of spam emails and trying to contact facebook I figured he could do some of the hard work to get his account back. Of course it backfired, after he stopped using his account facebook and a couple of weeks facebook started sending begging emails to my email account again (don't believe them when they say they delete anything), I still get the occasional "what you've missed on FB" emails and about once a year the guy tries to recover his account and I get an email, I'd drop him a note, but the only email address I have for him is mine

jug 3y ago

LOL this reminds me of a hilarious bug (but only in hindsight!) I had with Discord just three days ago! I tried to login to Discord. It detected a novel browser or location. Sure, this stuff can happen. It wanted to confirm that I was still me and asked me for my e-mail address. I gave it and it said "This e-mail address is already registered". What. Of course it is. It's me. Mine. The one I have registered with you. Since I have a few useful things tied to Discord, I felt my pulse go up. I googled for answers, found a Reddit thread with this specific problem. They said "Hey, if you use Gmail you can use the dots-are-ignored-feature to give Discord a "new" mail that will still go to you, allowing you to verify it!" (https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/12makhd/verify_email_already_registered/ https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/12makhd/verify_...) Sounded clever so I gave it a fore.name.sur.name@gmail.com variant. Sure enough, I got the mail. I logged in. I gasped as I realized Discord had now created a new, empty user for me! It somehow thought I was a brand new user despite this was only a user account _verification_ due to changed IP or whatever to begin with. I tried logging in to my original account once more and now I somehow got in! The verification on my new account had somehow triggered (cookie? I have no idea) that I was trustworthy again. Phew! I promptly deleted the new-account-going-to-same-mail and breathed normally again...

Panzer04 3y ago
I've done this at least twice for the same reasons, and it's lead to me pulling my number off discord twice now. It's stupid how similar logging in and creating an account look.
alduin32 3y ago
> I promptly deleted the new-account-going-to-same-mail and breathed normally again... I think at that point I would just have been too scared that this would cascade-delete the old account as well ^^
TheHumanist 3y ago
I hadn't thought of getting possibly locked out of Discord for something so stupid. I have so much going on in there as far as dev comms... That makes me nervous now. Is there a way to export anything just in case?

galactus 3y ago

I have exactly the same problem, and it has made my gmail account almost unusable. I have at least 150 unwanted emails per day (80% of them get caught by the spam filter)

InsomniacL 3y ago

I don't understand how anyone else can register a facebook account with f.o.o@gmail.com if you own it just as much as you own foo@gmail.com.

adrianmsmith 3y ago
The trouble is that Facebook doesn't know every email providers rules and which email addresses the email provider considers equivalent. So for Facebook, foo@gmail.com and f.o.o@gmail.com are two separate addresses (and indeed foo@hotmail.com and f.o.o@hotmail.com probably really are two separate addresses probably controlled by two different people). You're right that if Facebook required the email to be verified (by sending an email to it) before it could be used with Facebook then two different people wouldn't be able to have two separate Facebook accounts with one of them having an email address controlled by someone else. However, Facebook, in order to "reduce friction" and "reduce time to first value" is happy for you to use an unverified email address and they're happy to send a variety of emails to that address (including lots of emails telling you to finally verify that address).
- InsomniacL 3y ago
  That's not true. I've just gone to facebook clicked register new account Entered Name, DOB, Email Now I'm stuck, can't proceed past "Enter the code from your email" and going to https://facebook.com https://facebook.com in a new browser tab takes be back to the "enter code from email page". I doubt they will send any chaser emails but I will report back in some time
  - c0pium 3y ago
    I just did the same thing with the opposite behavior, you’re probably coming from a bad internet neighborhood. Facebook does a lot of reputation stuff in their login and onboarding flows.
  - adrianmsmith 3y ago
    I see, interesting! Maybe they've changed their system. Thanks for looking into this!

nmeofthestate 3y ago

Bear in mind that since there are a lot of websites (hundreds at least), and you haven't signed up to all of them, you can end up getting emails from websites you didn't sign up for even, when you're not using Gmail. I doubt it makes this minor problem appreciably worse

jeroenhd 3y ago

Facebook shouldn't be sending you those emails at all, to be honest, assuming you never clicked the verification button. That said, clicking the "report spam" button should allow you to unsubscribe from such emails without dealing with logins or whatnot. Gmail supports certain unsubscribe headers that'll automate the process, which should make getting rid of Facebook's spam a lot easier.