WWYD- Getting someone elses emails? (LIGHTHEARTED!!!!)

I have this twice over. Someone in Ireland and someone in the US. I get their medical appointments, classroom updates, tennis camp emails and flooring estimates.

Its a problem with Gmail dots

Also, I wouldnt join in the conversation either- you could be accused of impersonating her, taking her identity etc

I wouldnt do anything. You have done everything you can to inform her and she has ignored you. You have told these people the email address is wrong and they still send. At this point I'd block them all as this all seems a bit weird to me.

Why would her DF still be emailing you knowing you are a complete stranger?- isnt that a little bit odd? Sorry but this would make me very suspicious of their motives.

I think I'd be inclined to tell the other person - by all the channels they use - that from a date (say 7 days from today) that all emails coming incorrectly to you will be auto deleted (can you do this if you set up a rule? If not just delete without reading.) You've been really helpful for the last TWENTY years - and they need to start taking responsibility for ensuring their correspondence reaches them or feel the consequences and not just ignoring you. 🌹

I had this when I worked for a Church - our handyman would regularly transpose two digits when giving out his own email address and another similarly named man was getting a lot of his emails. Person 2 found our office phone number and called me to let me know as some of the stuff he’d received had been about Church accounts, so sensitive but not confidential information. Turned out he’d ben getting emails for years, including things like concert tickets and personal bank details. He was also the handyman for a business and they were very similar people! I persuaded person one to change his email address to something that was harder to get wrong.

I get this too! I’ve had the other Louise bakers pay slips (she earns a LOT more than me!), waiver emails from cosmetic procedures, so many email confirmations from orders etc.
Ive contacted various places, sent an email to her employer but no response and still get the emails periodically!
Louise baker is not our real name!

I have this as well but I’ve always ignored the emails. One time the lady emailed me to ask if she could have my email address.

Nothing else you can do, I wouldn’t spend anymore time on it trying to fix. Just delete the emails or have a copy paste reply to say it’s the wrong address.

I have this two! A lady in America. I get all their family photos, Christmas round robins, dog walking appointments, church clubs, etc.

The company I work for has the same name as a primary school. Our email is @name.org and the primary school email is @name.org.uk

I'm the "catch all" for email sent to our domain name. Usually it's just spam but I get a number of enquiries for the school including highly confidential things like medical documents and SEN assessments for children.

I was forwarding them onto the school, but every time I did, I got a rude response from the receptionist accusing me of snooping in confidential materials! I just delete them now.

If it's gmail you can automatically forward them to her. It's in Settings, Forwarding. I expect you can do this with most email providers.

Alternatively If you are annoyed now and just don't want to read them then you can filter them automatically into a folder and then every so often delete them in a batch.

I've had this too, with my maiden name email address. I know exactly where she lives, thanks to parcel tracking, and have e-receipts and the like from some places, Halfords being one.

I also found her on Facebook and messaged her, but she didn't respond. I just delete them / unsubscribe now.

Eugh I have this too although it seems to have stopped but that might be as I stopped using that address. Dr info, friends, assorted mailing lists. I worked out they must have had a .net rather than .com or similar so did email her but still daily emails. Once I even got on a chain planning a holiday with a Group of friends so replied saying I'm not her but they all just continued to copy me into the conversation wondering what they would do about that...I blocked them all. She would also frequently request password resets so clearly didn't know her own email address. As I say I changed emails about 5 years ago and stopped using the other one so I assume if she wanted she could have it now but quite frankly I assume she's too stupid to realise.

This is the sort of situation which makes me grateful for having a unique name! (Not unique in that I'm called Persephone-Chocolatecookie or something ridiculous, just unusual first name and unusual surname).

All you can do is keep deleting the trivia and replying when you can to the serious ones telling them they have it wrong.

It wouldn’t be beyond realms of possibility for things to go wrong in cyberspace, though, would it? It’s not so much the being corrected. It’s the ‘’Er, no’’ that I found rude and condescending.

I’m only human.
Google isn't though.

I've had this too. Mine lives in Ohio and I got all her college applications. Then she went to college and joined the cheerleading squad and I got all of that.

Do you need to be so rude to reply like that? I had heard something a few times, specifically about gmail. In fact there was a thread a while back. It turns out it’s the dots not letters, I had got mixed up. I’m only human.

Can you set up a rule to say any emails from xxx address (the family ones etc) auto forward to the correct Gmail and then delete it. At least your inbox won't get cluttered!

I'd be more worried about her getting your emails, appointments etc..

But in your case I'd just make it obvious it's not her but join in

It's only a dot gmail ignores, not a letter. That wouldn't work.

OP just ignore it or of it's important carry on replying to say "wrong email, sorry". It's not your responsibility to do any more.

Er, no. Gmail doesn’t just randomly send emails to addresses that are a bit like the intended one. The sender typed the wrong address and that’s all there is to it.

There’s a very cheesy novel or romcom in here somewhere!

I once accidentally emailed someone incorrectly in the way you describe - and she went ballistic! I can’t think why she was so angry but it made me more careful in subsequent emails… 🧐

I have this with someone who is quite high up in local government in another country. It's been going on for years and he's even done it on Twitter too as our handles are similar to our email accounts. It's not Gmail.

I've got this with my Gmail account. At least two different women, and it's been going on for years. One of them I emailed to try to explain but she must have ignored me because the problem continued. The other, on one of the emails her phone number was shown, so I rang her! She was initially extremely sceptical until I told her what she'd just bought online and then forwarded her the email. I'm not doing any more free secretarial work though - these days I just read them and delete. Still annoying.

I'm exactly the same. No matter how many times you write it as obviously as you can and then remind about the middle initial it still gets missed.

I do always chase up emails that I've not received and ask again for my email address to be corrected, so wouldn't expect someone to be dealing with forwarding on or contacting the sender for me

I have actually emailed back and forth with her DF.. he seems a nice guy.

this part made me laugh.

i also think you should just forward them on and also join in, but make it obvious who you are. If you get an invite to a party or a wedding go. Take A Break would eat that up.