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! 🤷‍♀️

Only once. It was documentation for a car being taken out on finance and I was really worried I'd had my identity stolen or something.

Not me, but my DH who shares name with a famous person which sometimes can be very interesting!

"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."

In these circumstances I've learned to look up the company's Data Protection address (always on the website, by law) to make contact that way, because then I know it will be taken seriously.

Yes, my name combo is unusual (there was only me, and now there's two of us...probably due to married name change) and I occasionally get work related emails. Only every couple of years so I just return saying I'm not the [email protected] they're looking for. I don't know if any of my stuff goes to them, it would all be very mundane stuff though...no interesting first page of a novel worthy mix ups!

I got a very early gmail address so it's firstname.lastname. That was fine while I was living in the UK because it's an Irish surname so people would carefully copy it as it's written and not make assumptions. Then I moved back to Ireland and have had problems ever since. The most common spelling of my surname has double letters in the middle so people think they know how to spell it and don't bother to read what's written properly. So someone named black.amerricano must be getting annoyed at receiving emails for me. Also the Irish tax office appears to have helpfully 'corrected' my surname, I'm sure that it was right before I left for the UK but it's definitely the more common spelling now. I'm just ignoring it in the hope that it won't cause problems further down the line.

My first name also has different spellings and the resident's association admin person did a typo so someone named blacke.americano was getting the updates about landscaping etc and ended up asking to be taken off the mailing list using more swear words per sentence that you would think possible. Admin person and other residents were quite snippy with me about the swearing until I pointed out that I hadn't had any emails at all, let alone replied to them, and most of them knew me by name which is clearly a different name to the email that swore at them.

Yep - I get them for a therapist with my name. Really bizarrely this therapist is active in the nearest town to me. A couple of times it's been really sensitive info about kids at a school - I even know the school. My surname is pretty common but my first name is quite rare. It gave my own therapist a scare a while ago as she saw it come up on the listings that 'I' was practising in the nearby town. If it's anything 'social' I don't bother doing anything, but for emails to them in a professional capacity I do reply and let them know they need to send it to the other person.

I'm the only person with my name in the UK but it's not uncommon in France. My email is firstnamesurname @ GmailDOT com. Somewhere in France someone has the same email but GmailDot FR . I occasionally get emails for her but not often. I think it's more when senders use the wrong domain level.

(Being able to insert random dots in Gmail accounts is goodo get more free trials of things. Thanks ancestry and Now TV)

All the time with gmail. I’ve built up quite a picture of this woman in the us over years who keeps using my email. She will never know she had a call back from her audition at the Chicago Youth Musical Theatre.

I don't, but other people do. My address is firstnameXYlastname at gmail, where X and Y are my middle initials, but the actual letters are both very thin and if people read the address and attempt to type it, they often leave one out. However, firstnameXlastname exists, and presumably gets quite a few mails that are intended for me.

Here's a possibly useful trick that not everyone knows about Gmail. You can put dots in the address anywhere you like and Gmail ignores them, so firstname.X.Y.lastname and firstnameXYlastname are the same thing. If you suspect that someone may be selling your address, you can sign up for their site as firs.tnameXYl.astname and see if you get mails sent to that address.

Yes - Gmail too. Apparently there are issues with the full stops....
I get emails for hotel invoices, wedding dress try on sessions, receipts for a new car. All for the same town in the US. Absolutely legit. I'll reply to the important looking ones to let them know. They've signed up to promotional emails from a store and the opt out isn't working and I'm fuming 🤣

Yep. Early gmail user so have first name.surname@ no other identifiers.
My American alter ego firstnamesurname (possibly with an additional forgotten digit) is in real estate, travels a lot, has wine socials, reads the Washington Examiner, and has care fees for her mom. Her car dealer is RELENTLESS and has no respect for the unsubscribe function, neither do Walgreens, Dashlane or her local Congressman.

I have received her home address, date of birth, medical results, lots of invoices and endless personal details.

I am very patient and make sure senders are replied to so they know there is an error and dont think SHE is being rude or tardy in response.

I have been most irked when sent legal documents via docusign as I could access them with no early indication they were not for me - attorney was mortified. But receiving digital boarding passes for an imminent American Airlines flight was the most stressful, imagining the poor woman hyperventilating into her phone at the airport.

The one thing I have failed to do is contact her directly by email on her ACTUAL email address. Oh the irony.

Interestingly if you search your gmail account with your username minus the . punctuation, it initally returns only those emails addressed to alloneword but rapidly then returns all other results. I dont think thats quite the fix they think.

Not me, but DH gets the odd email for a US senator.....

Reading through these has reminded me of why I permanently unplugged my landline. My number is 1 digit different to the local taxi e.g last digits 889 not 998.

A wee old lady phoned every Sunday morning to get her taxi to church, she was sweet though and i used to give her the correct number. But, endless calls from piss heads every Friday and Saturday drove me nuts and as I was the 1st named contact on a relatives emergency alarm at the time I couldn't unplug it.

In the end, the repeat offenders had a long wait for their taxi 😳.

They probably signed up with the name firstname_surname about 4 years ago and have been mistyping their email ever since!

I get them every day!

I was very lucky to be one of the first people to get a Gmail address so my email address is used by quite a few people. I am always flummoxed as to how they can get their email address wrong if I am honest.

It is sometimes amusing but also sometimes disconcerting as I receive quite private emails with their bank details, street address etc. Obviously I have no idea what their real email is so I can't forward any of it on. I just reply back saying the email is wrong and for the seller/website to check the spellings, its all we can do.

Yes there's an American me and she's an idiot. Keeps signing up for paid online subscriptions using my email, that I then reset the password of l, log into and cancel. I tried messaging the 4 Mes I could find on Facebook in case one of them was her to explain, but got no acknowledgement. Every now and then I get a flood of "you've tried to reset your password emails"

Yes, I was regularly getting emails for someone with the same name in the US. I was getting included in family group emails with holiday photos etc. I emailed a family member and asked them to kindly inform my namesake she was giving out the wrong email so it slowed down for a while but I would still often get receipts etc. sent through.
It seems to have stopped now as the last one I had was the password for some work system that she was signed up to. I got so annoyed that I signed into her work account and changed her name to 'WRONG EMAIL ADDRESS!" I was tempted to cancel all her meetings and courses but thought changing the name would probably be sufficient to get the message across.

No, my name isn’t that unusual but the combination is. I once searched on Facebook (sad, I know) and the only other lady with my name lives less than ten miles away from me, is in the same line of work and has remarkably similar interests😀
What’s in a name I wonder?

Not my email but used to get it constantly over the years with Twitter. Say my name there was Tarkan, I was constantly being tagged in things meant for Tarkan1.

I also once had a DM there from a producer about a true crime programme to do with a murder in my town. I must have the same name as someone involved in the court case so they messaged me thinking I was the other person. I was very tempted to pretend to be that person to see what would happen but I didn't have the guts.

I once got an email from a woman who had the same name as me with one letter different where she said she was forwarding all my mail and could I PLEASE start telling everyone how I spell my name when I give them my email. It really made me chuckle as I didn't get any for her.

Have you done any credit checks?

Sounds like she's acting as a clone, especially getting your employers name etc. Bit more going on there than getting someone else's mail

I got a marriage proposal via text from a wrong number last night does that counr? Got my hopes up and everything 😅

@chocbelli yes I have this issue with a vet in North Carolina. She uses my gmail for her internet banking, her church groups, various other business & voter correspondence. I unsubscribe where I can, or request to be removed from the group etc. It’s astounding to me that in the last 6 years she has not twigged that she doesn’t get emails from her bank about her numerous accounts, or that her religious group leader has not told her about her error.

I use needmore sleep and she has need.more.sleep. I know she is an estate agent from some qualifications that were sent and that she is not very good at returning library books. I get appointment information wrt her dentist and kids orthodontist.

When appropriate I have notify sender and her of mistakes.

Anc I have received end of year school reports and I was delighted her children were doing so well. I did contact the school to say they used the wrong email.

No and I wouldn't have my full name in an email like that anwyay