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! 🤷‍♀️

Yeah, I have been receiving a monthly family newsletter from the USA for yearsss. I did email a few times years ago (and again last year) saying they had the wrong email, but I still get invited to Thanksgiving and BBQs regularly - as well as recieving the newsletter and Christmas eCards. So weird! 😆 I should block the email tbh, but I'm quite intrigued to see how long it'll take for someone to actually remove me, been about 7 years now.

That and I get emails from a school again in the USA about their class newsletter, teacher updates etc. I have finally managed to get that one stopped

How did you know what her email address was to email her and tell her?

Aw I’m very happy for Canadian you. Presumably it wasn’t Jan 1 this year when they caused the chaos?! 😀

Yes! Some bloody woman in Kent kept using my email address somehow for restaurant bookings, Halfords shopping and one other item which I then got delivery tracking for, so knew exactly where she lived!

I did find her and message her on Messenger to let her know her mistake, but she didn't see it. In the end I contacted the restaurant she had a booking with, as they emailed asking for a deposit to be paid, asking them to call her and let her know her mistake! They did email back to tell me they'd ring her, which was nice of them.

ETA: also Gmail.

Edit also: I also got emails for some boating club in the US. They were MUCH harder to fucking stop. Drove me mental!

It was a few years ago, I think she emailed something. Asking me to do something.
And I had to explain this and the netflix account were mine. Had been for over a decade at that point.

It’s happened twice ever, for the same lady. One was her booking in notes for a maternity appointment, and the other was a soft play booking two years later which I thought was really sweet.

Weirdly her email address is nothing like mine!