Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder why people can't understand e-mail addresses?

78 replies

wasonthelist · 13/12/2015 12:05

I have an Australian namesake and one in the USA. They keep on registering for stuff using my email address. I was the first to get our name - [email protected] - but they seem utterly unable to understand that they don't have it - and they have [email protected] and something else.

I have tried asking nicely - but they seem to not get it.

Today I've had a confirmation from a website that I've been signed up for an account using my address - by my namesake's wife in Australia.

OP posts:
Lweji · 13/12/2015 12:08

Surely it's their problem?

Maybe it was a typo?

sooperdooper · 13/12/2015 12:09

Just delete the emails, it's a complete non issue Confused

StealthPolarBear · 13/12/2015 12:10

Email them and tell them

Arfarfanarf · 13/12/2015 12:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 13/12/2015 12:12

Email confirmations usually have either and unsubscribe link, it a link to follow to confirm. Either unsubscribe or ignore, depending on the option.

Garlick · 13/12/2015 12:13

Ohmygoodness! You've just explained why I received confirmation that some swanky toiletries had been shipped to me by an American firm Grin

I deleted it - but I do know who my US namesake is, I could've told her!

SkodaLabia · 13/12/2015 12:14

I have the same, I've received emails intended for someone else who I think may have a full stop where I don't. I've had highly confidential stuff for him regarding adoption, I now get stuff from his local residents' association.

goodnightdarthvader1 · 13/12/2015 12:14

I've had this - some prat with my name in PA, USA. I just unsubscribe / mark everything as spam. Not my problem.

AnchorDownDeepBreath · 13/12/2015 12:14

There's two options.

1 - They made a typo/it autocorrected/they are forgetful. Non issue, delete the email, they'll realise what they've done eventually.

2 - You're falling foul of alias email addresses because your addresses are so similar. Very simply, this means you can enter a similar email address and it still be delivered to you. I can use my name+surname, my name+surname and number, my name+DP's surname, etc... It's quite possible that they either have an alias that means they can email from firstname+surname and so keep making the mistake of signing up with that, or that they have your exact email as an alias and therefore the servers are screwing up your mail.

Most people would just delete these emails, and forget about it. If they bother you too much, I'd probably just change email addresses entirely.

ZebraLovesKnitting · 13/12/2015 12:16

I have this - my email is [email protected]
Unfortunately one of my namesakes in the US is a religious healer. I get all sorts of random emails from people for her. Some of them get quite irate when I tell them they've got the address wrong.

littleducks · 13/12/2015 12:16

I think there is an issue with gmail in regards to this have heard about it before. About it directing email to the account with no numbers. I have disabled Facebook accounts etc set up as [email protected] by someone across who s the numbered version of the my address. It is annoying.

Hygge · 13/12/2015 12:18

It may not be their fault, they might be giving the correct email and the people sending emails are typing it in wrong.

I say this because I live at an address similar to 123, and the people at 132 sometimes get our post and vice versa.

They wrote us a really snotty note and stuck it through our door, suggesting that we learn our own address and use it in future, as they were going to start binning our post from now on.

We probably had the same amount of post for them as they had for us, and it only happened once or twice a year, and given how similar the addresses are you'd think it might happen more often, but they got very wound up about it.

Garlick · 13/12/2015 12:31

Oh dear, that is unfortunate, zebra!

There are some right idiots about, Hygge, aren't there.

noblegiraffe · 13/12/2015 12:32

My namesakes (more than one, some UK, some U.S.) keep signing my address up for shit like wowcher that send a billion mails a day. And when you hit unsubscribe it says 'it will take 30 days to process your request'. Or the guy in the U.S. who registered his AT&T account to my address, they don't have an unsubscribe option and to contact them you need a login which I don't have because it isn't fucking me.

Those saying it's a non-issue clearly don't have an inbox regularly filled with random shite.

And I don't want to change my email because I've had it for a decade.

ShebaShimmyShake · 13/12/2015 12:34

Anyone who gets confirmation emails for things they haven't bought, do check your PayPal account just to be sure it hasn't been hacked.

Garlick · 13/12/2015 12:43

I did check, Sheba - but they'd be bloody lucky to get $160 out of my PayPal!!

ShebaShimmyShake · 13/12/2015 12:44

Haha!

CandOdad · 13/12/2015 12:44

Used to have this at work. Multinational company and the way they dealt with duplicate names was to add a number on the end. There were something like 27 davesmith @multinatioalaccount.com. The Dave we worked with was always getting confidential details on contracts etc since if the number was omitted the system sent it to all of them!

MustBeThursday · 13/12/2015 12:52

I've never had emails for other people coming from my account - but I'm pretty sure someone has had email for me sent to them. Not because I used the wrong email to sign up for something, but when I was doing a qualification for work some time ago the form for the external provider required me putting my external email on it. They evidently didn't read the form very well as it turned out they'd sent several emails to [email protected] - understandable, but my actual email address is firstname. maidenname @gmail.com. I did wonder if the person who got the emails thought I'd been a bit daft and had used the wrong email to sign up.

I suppose that format is the norm for email addresses now - must be annoying if you have a popular name/common surname.

EBearhug · 13/12/2015 13:01

I think it's a Gmail thing, or possibly some customer sites - I had it recently where it stripped out the dots in my name, so I was getting mails for ebhug as well as e.b.hug (apologies to anyone actually using that address - I made it up as an example.)

ProfYaffle · 13/12/2015 13:04

I get it on gmail too. Keep getting e-mails informing me of times/dates for High School football matches in Austrailia!

PurpleHairAndPearls · 13/12/2015 13:08

I had entered my DH's email address incorrectly on my phone (entirely my fault) and it remembered, and defaulted to it for ages.

I kept sending little snippets about pandas and photos of our cat etc to some guy with the same name, but in Australia Blush

In the end we struck up quite a correspondence Grin He seemed very nice. I always thought it would make a good plot for a book or a film ( if it already hasn't).

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 13/12/2015 13:08

Gmail does not "recognise" periods in email addresses.

I was getting mails for ebhug as well as e.b.hug

These are the same email address, they could not be owned by different people.
support.google.com/mail/answer/10313?hl=en

LunchpackOfNotreDame · 13/12/2015 13:09

I keep getting emails for my namesake. They signed up to eBay and Amazon using it so I went in and changed their passwords.

LunchpackOfNotreDame · 13/12/2015 13:11

The other thing I've done when utility companies have emailed me with my namesakes name, date of birth and address is send back three words

Data Protection Breech

Swipe left for the next trending thread