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

[wasonthelist]

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.

Capitals aren't relevant in emails

I have a namesake and we know there are only two of us with that name (possibly more who are children as the first name is more popular now)

I have her on Facebook and we occasionally forward emails incorrectly addressed

Sorry, yes I phrased 2 badly. They will be for me in the same way that a wrong number will be for me - they are ringing my phone number and have not been misdirected by the switchboard. As it were. It's just that the person they want is not available at my number/email. So it's right but also wrong.

So the person who shares your name simply doesn't have the address they they have entered. The same error as if they had entered their friend's address or something completely random. As it were.

[boggles]

I know gmail ignores periods (or full stops as we used to be allowed to call them), but it does know the difference between my actual email address and that of my namesakes. It can only be my namesakes or someone acting on their behalf - and I have politely notified them multiple times.

Much more likely that the person sending the email is typing it in incorrectly than that someone doesn't know their own email address. Or that you're being phished.

How do people know what the other person's email address is if whatever it is is being sent to their own email address? And how do you notify them?

We used to have the same number as the local GP but with the middle two numbers transposed. At least one call a week. When pointed out the usual response was "wondered why I got through so quickly" I gave some potentially life saving advice once.

Dyslexia rules - KO

I have an unusual first name and an unusual last name, there are two of us on the uk electoral register and by chance we were at the same university at the same time.

After being taken to one side to ask why inward ignoring important emails and not responding accordingly (super serious professional course) I contacted my namesake to say "how funny no one expects there to be two of us, please can you forward any unusual emails to me as in getting into trouble?"

The response was "the email spirits may choose their own destiny, who are we to intervene?"

YANBU!

Same for me. I've had my gmail address since the beta testing days and now get emails for a few different namesakes in the USA. Lots of bird watching and family reunion emails from one lot, and then another who has a penchant for pay day loans!

I also get them for a namesake in my own country - we actually work together so I just forward them to her correct address! Her ones are the other people inputting the wrong address.

I also have a fairly unusual name - I once saw a thing where you could see how many people there were on the electoral register with the same name and it was 7 in the whole of the UK I think.

When I was growing up there was another girl with the same name and a similar age in the same small town and she was one of those people who frequently forgot to attend dental appointments and return library books.

Probably not helped due to most of her appointment and reminder letters being sent to me.

Oh Barbara if you are the other me... Why I'll... rolls up sleeves

I've just Googled the same name website and sadly it doesn't seem to work anymore, which is a shame because that would have made a great chat thread.

It would have also got the grammar pedants frothing because the site was www.yournotme.com

I became friends with one of my namesakes. She lives in California, I was in London. She received an email meant for me, about a course. She googled me (the course+my name made me identifiable), found my real email address and we struck up a correspondence.

Seven or so years later, we've met up once when she was in the UK visiting family, and I'm planning to visit her next year. We are the same age and have a similar outlook and even look a little similar.

My DH has a very common name, where he works he bagged the original email address of his name. Think [email protected]
Then another Michael Smith joined and he had [email protected]

It's been 5 years and DH still gets emails for the other guy and vice versa. It's lazy third parties not checking the email address properly which causes their problem.

Glad I have numbers in my email address now.

Do you think some folk register the wrong email address to avoid marketing emails?

I remember giving out a fake email address on paper forms when I wanted a freebie as a student in exchange for my email address, same with random mobile numbers (oops!). But think I used [email protected]. So not sure how many Mickey Mouses I have upset with that one.

DP keeps getting confidential emails from someone workplace with the same name. They seem pretty senior, and the things emailed include HR info. DP keeps emailing back to point out their mistake, gets an apology and the emails stop, only to start up a few months later.

It's always on money saving shows to cut the numbers from your email if you're signing up for something that will spam you. It's likely to be accepted as a valid email address but you won't be drowning in spam.

I think people just decide what your email address should be. People who have known my work address for years still occasionally tell me they emailed first name at company and wonder why it didn't get to me...

I think auto fill has a part to play too, once they've got it wrong once, the Internet remembers.

I got asked via email to house sit in Australia to look after two beautiful dogs. Detailed instructions including the pin code for the electric gates and what to do about the swimming pool.

I was absolutely gutted I couldn't take them up on it, what with living 10,000 miles away so I forwarded it to my namesake who happens to live in the same town as them and is [email protected] rather than [email protected].

I got a very confidential email a few months ago that wasn't meant for me. It was a child psychologists report for social services, with every detail about the child and family on it. Turned out the psychologist had emailed them to herself at home, and put my address in by mistake - think [email protected] and hers is [email protected]

I emailed her straight away to tell her and got a lecture back about how I shouldn't read it and must delete it...you'd swear it was my mistake. She got short shrift back, and was told if it happened again I'd be reporting her.

I've got the same where some lady thinks she has my email address. Unfortunately I use [email protected] and she's started using [email protected]. So they're basically the same but she can register with it for services as I don't use that version of the address. She's set up PayPal, eBay and Amazon accounts, all of which I've had cancelled and flagged so she has to contact them when she next tries to log on. I've written to her but it didn't stop so I cancel anything that I get notified about. The inconvenience has really reduced her using it and I haven't had anything for a while.

It's annoying as I don't want her notifications, spam or indeed any PayPal disputes coming to me. Plus my name is really common and I stayed up late many years ago to register my address so I was the first to get it.

I also get high school PTA info from America, but the lady is lovely and we had a little email chat. Unfortunately the email was incorrect on a large bailout so it's taken a while to stop. They were all lovely and I always responded if the message was important so they could let my doppelgänger know as she obviously wasn't getting the email.

freespirits , you have a twin! You were separated at birth. You will find that you both pursue a similar career, have partners who are alike and the same number of children.

Think [email protected] and hers is [email protected]

These are both the same email address. Gmail ignores dots.

Unfortunately I use [email protected] and she's started using [email protected]

These are both the same email address. Gmail/Google mail are entirely interchangeable.

I got one recently from the guy in Texas who shares my initials and surname. It was offering me a car loan. I emailed a nicely tongue in cheek reply asking if they would be shipping my new car to me and if he would make the repayments as he uses my email so often. Got a very pleasant response.

I did also really upset a car repair firm who kept emailing invoices to me not him as they sent me a stream of emails, and ignored me nicely asking them to correct their records, just after our dog died. I ended up telling them to FOTTFSOFATFOSM and they told me off for my bad language. Finally stopped emailing though.

I have also reviewed artwork he purchased on his behalf, it was shite.

It's always on money saving shows to cut the numbers from your email if you're signing up for something that will spam you. It's likely to be accepted as a valid email address but you won't be drowning in spam

That is a really shitty thing to do. The reason you have numbers is because someone already has the non-numbered version. I add "nospam" or something to the address instead.

How do people know what the other person's email address is if whatever it is is being sent to their own email address?

I Facebook searched my name and there were only 7 of us. Sent a friend request, with message, to them all. Six ignored; one's still a 'friend'. I know where she lives; no idea about the others.

Some posters in this thread are bullshitting, though, as evidenced by their dismal understanding of email, never mind their namesakes'!

I used to be the only person with my name in the UK. Then I changed my name and now I am one of approximately eleventy billion.

Still been a long time since I got an email thinking I was someone else!

I think a lot of them are people signing up for stuff they don't want to be spammed about. I'm going to set up an email just for that I think, I get fed up of wading through the 150 emails I get on a daily basis, and those are just into my personal inboxes.

I can understand the ones that have the same name as me, but I really don't get why I'm getting Gary Giraffe's phone bills when my name is Noble Giraffe. Why would Gary sign up with a female email address?