If your email address is [email protected] ...

[chocbelli]

... do you often get emails for other people with the same name as you?

I've had a firstname.surname gmail address for about 30 years, with no bother, but in the last 3-4 years I've been getting random but genuine emails for people with the same name - e.g. mailing list subscriptions, an EPC certificate, a building insurance email, emails from solicitors or accountants which include personal info. They are addressed to my firstname and surname, but include postal addresses in other parts of the UK or different countries. I assume these people must have similar emails e.g. firstname.surname1 or firstname.surnameWithDifferentSpelling but somehow mistyped them when filling out an online form.

Does this happen to you? My name is not a common one at all, but is clearly common enough for me to have doppelgangers around the world with poor recollection of their own email addresses.

I'm very curious as to why this just started happening in the last 3-4 years, when I've had this address for ever and ever! 🤷‍♀️

Whoever Sam Taylor is with a gmail account must hate me. If I ever have to sign up for free WiFi, that’s the email address I use.

I had someone with the same first name as me (but a completely different last name) using my gmail address for online shopping. I contacted her and asked her to stop, but to no avail, and the companies concerned refused to do anything. So I started logging into her accounts and changing all the passwords, then deleted my email.

Nowadays I only use random words and numbers in my email addresses, and have had no more problems, and hardly any junk mail.

Yep, I have an Irish me who's daughter goes to tennis summer camp and has speech therapy appointments. American me likes to shop at Pottery Barn and has just had a quote for new flooring. ( except she didn't get the quote, I did)

Yes! I have a nurse in America using my email address. I get her library correspondence, meeting invites and now her date matches on a dating site.

Mothercare in Stoke - multiple times

All the bloody time.

The only one I don't mind is that there is a woman who has the same name as me only her email has another letter in it for her middle name. Her mum has dementia and emails me now and again. I always send her mum a nice reply. Everyone else can sod off.

Yep, I have firstnamesurname@gmail had it since it came out. There's a woman with the same name who is signing up for all kinds with firstname.surname@gmail (I even have her address because I was getting her utility bills). I have contacted her through Facebook to tell her that her mail comes to me as Gmail ignores the full stop. but she still signs up to websites using it.
I have had grants from the council for her sent to me. constantly getting reset your password emails. She signs up for loads of dating sites, and swinging sites, spends a ton on Wayfair,
I have given up and just deleted them now. If she misses important shit then it's her fault. I have explained why she can't use firstname.surname@ because I get her emails, but she still does it.

Yes. I am currently getting will executor emails for someone who survived a spouse's death. My email is identical to her minus an e in the first name. I've been forwarding the emails on to her.

@chocbelli - yes I do for a US person with a needle crafting hobby who has trained as a vet and had some graduation photos taken

I keep emailing to say they've got wrong email but to no avail!

Gmail too.

Heaps for years, I've had all sorts of nursery letters, then school, divorce stuff etc by a family in the USA, despite telling them about a million times and sending emails to the school etc writing to me, still happens, have random stuff too like roblux etc, but that family have been a staple in my life for years now!

gmail doesn't take into account full stops in email addresses.
So if you have firstname.surname@gmail etc, whoever has the same name as you , but the email address firstnamesurname@gmail etc, will get your emails.

support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en-GB#:~:text=If%20someone%20accidentally%20adds%20dots,john.smith%40gmail.com

We had an issue at work recently when someone in another part of the country was getting emails meant for one of our colleagues (fortunately only an invite to a training day), which is when we discovered this. Our colleague (with the firstname.surname email) had to change email addresses.

I changed mine to something less obvious as someone with the same name as me had a major shopping addiction and I kept getting her e-receipts. Caused problems for me signing up for a couple of things.

I do dip into the old mailbox from time to time and had to restrain myself from sending a cheeky reply when her relatives in New Zealand sent over details of their house move and 'inside the new house' family photos, was so tempted to mischief make with that one and criticise the decor 😆.

On my day to day email I am firstnamesurname@ and I regularly get emails for someone who I assume is first name.surname@

Recently an appliance store in Northern Ireland sent me a receipt for a washing machine and said they would be in contact to arrange delivery. I do not live in NI. I contacted the store and asked them to check the lady's email address and a friendly bloke replied back and apologised. This is in contrast to the time a solicitor kept sending highly confidential letters to me re a house sale. I could not reply directly to the emails as they were obviously generated via a website. I tracked down the conveyancing firm and the email of the person and advise them they had the wrong address. No acknowledgement, and they kept sending the emails.

I have a Gmail account which is my name followed by a random number. It is unusable because I get 10s of emails a day for people with the same name but a different number, or with a slightly different surname (my surname is not part of my email address).

I was an early Gmail adopter too and bagged my (fairly unusual) surname on its own. I get loads of stuff meant for other people around the world. Once got sent a $500 e-voucher to a New Zealand theme park with a personalised message to someone's grandchildren. I always try and respond to let them know it's not reached the right person.

Best one was an email invoice for a hardwear purchase from a shop in Canada. Intended recipient was my cousin!

Not email but at my last address I had the same landline number as a florist in a nearby suburb, but a different dialling code. I used to often come home to long messages on my answering machine about orders. I used to ring people back with the correct number. When there was one which was a very upset woman ordering funeral flowers I rang the florist and asked if there was anything we could do. She told me to change my number! (I didn’t.)

I don’t even know what the landline number here is, and we don’t have a phone plugged in.

Same.

This reminds me of that Friends episode with the woman using Monica’s credit card to lead the life Monica wished she had.

My DH owns a domain name that’s a misspelling of a word based on his initials. A large company has the domain based on the actual word. So he intermittently gets emailed all sorts of important stuff when someone’s been a bit hasty in their typing.

I got someone's messages about their gym membership a few times. I told the company and they were very snotty. For some reason it stressed me out getting them.

id be worried of someone had a name like mine lol

Yes with Gmail.

I just reply to them and tell them and it usually stops.

It has been happening less recently, around 1 every couple of weeks

Trying to work out why having a particular name means it's inconceivable you'd have unshaped eyebrows. Are you a Kardashian?

Yes. I have first name last name @ gmail.com. with a fairly unusual name. There is a lady in the US who has first name initial last name @ Gmail.com except she constantly forgets the initial. I get lots of mail for her. I used to forward it on ( doctors appointments etc etc) but she got so annoying that I stopped.

The most hilarious was when she had submitted a quote for some cub scout badges. I emailed the company to let them know & they didn't believe me. They literally came back shouting that I had wasted their time having none of it acting as if I had just forgotten 😂

Thank you! I've got a gmail address (with the . between my names) and for years, every now and then I get emails for my doppleganger. It can be quite amusing as I've built a picture of their life - where they live, what sports they do, the fact they're interested in courses at the university of Miami, etc. Sometimes if it seems important I've replied saying wrong email address. I even got one from a phone account that gave their phone number, and I thought about phoning or texting them to tell them! but chickened out.
Then I did spot that the address one email had been sent to was myname with no dot I had no idea it was a known issue. I wonder if they've been getting mine too, sometimes.

YES!! I was so upset by them because some were emails regarding unpaid debts/baliffs etc I had to contact the company and tell them without a doubt they had the wrong email address - this person is stil doing it however and signs up to no end of online gambling sites which again, I have to contact and tell them I want my email address removed, this person has used mine in error. It's so frustrating. I've actually emailed them too to tell them to be more careful but not had a response.

Omg I thought it was just me! My email is [email protected] and I get lots addressed to [email protected]

Over the years I've had:

A council chasing thousands in unpaid council tax
Being CC'd into a highly personal family argument between several relatives
Medical information
Estate agents re: her new rentals
Being added to primary school mailing lists
Zumba Hoops class emails - I got a lot of them
Endless subscriptions - eg dating websites, betting sites, etc etc
Shopping order confirmations

I asked people to tell her she was giving out the wrong email address for a while but never got anywhere so now I just ignore them!