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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not get why someone keeps using my email address?

41 replies

Lemen · 27/02/2017 10:16

Its been going on for a few years. Its an Indonesian man called Mohammed something or other.
He uses my gmail address to set up various accounts e.g. other gmail addresses, skype, etc I must always disavow the authentication email but he still keeps doing it.

I must have missed one once because I got an email from blackberry last week saying that there's been 3 unsuccessful attempts to log into my blackberry account (I din't have a blackberry). So, feelign a bit fed up, I actually closed the blackberry account which would've deleted all his contacts etc. I thought maybe he'll get the message now.

But no, he didn't. At the weekend I got this:
Halo,
Anda telah membuat BlackBerry ID!
Untuk mendapatkan manfaat sepenuhnya dari BlackBerry ID, konfirmasi alamat email Anda.
Tautan ini akan kedaluwarsa dalam waktu 72 jam.
BlackBerry® ID adalah kunci universal BlackBerry Anda. Berikut ini yang ditawarkan:
• Satu sign-in untuk semua aplikasi, layanan, dan situs Web BlackBerry.
• Transfer otomatis atas beberapa layanan dan akun email bila Anda berpindah ponsel cerdas.
• Akses penuh ke semua fitur di etalase BlackBerry® World™.
• Perlindungan atas berbagai transaksi keuangan yang menggunakan layanan BlackBerry.
Pelajari hal lainnya tentang BlackBerry ID
Tim BlackBerry
which roughly translates as "your email address has been used to set up a new blackberry ID"!

Why does he do it?

OP posts:
Trills · 27/02/2017 10:17

He thinks it is his email address?

to not get why someone keeps using my email address?
Mingewithafringe · 27/02/2017 10:21

Your email addresses could be very similar I.e only even different by a dot or an underscore. This happens with Gmail addresses and happened to me.
My emails address was [email protected], some guy in India was using [email protected].

Obviously mingewithafringe is an example!

I used to get all of his Facebook notifications and jobs he was applying for. I tried to contact him on Facebook asking him if he could kindly change his email address but he ignored me! I just delete the emails now

Original poster
Lemen · 27/02/2017 10:22

he might have a similar email address (I wouldn't know), but he has used mine for many accounts.

What I do know is my gmail address is nothing like his name, but he uses my gmail address name for his business in the way I am using "Lemen" here. Surely he must realise by now that he can't access the gmail account he keeps using? It has been going on for years.

OP posts:
Original poster
Lemen · 27/02/2017 10:25

its only a short email address - 7 alphanumberic characters - , with no dots etc. Maybe he has the version with the dots?

You think he'd take more care when he not only got locked out of blackberry but had the whole id, that he'd been suing for a while, deleted? It must have been a little inconvenient?

I tried posting on a forum he uses with my name to let him know in case it was a mistake. That was about a year ago. No reply.

OP posts:
Trills · 27/02/2017 10:29

He may THINK he has the version with the dots.

He doesn't though.

If you have registered [email protected] the it's impossible for anyone to register [email protected] because gmail ignores dots and treats them the same.

Original poster
Lemen · 27/02/2017 10:34

i guess it would make sense if in the past platform providers were less strict about getting email addresses authenticated and I wasn't that hot on disavowing them either until it started to annoy me a couple of years ago. So maybe he was able to use accounts all over the place.

I know he's got a skype account with it because I was told my email address was already in use when I tried to set a skype account up. It wouldn't let me do a password reset either.

Maybe now that he keeps losing use of his blackberry, he'll start to wonder why and figure out the problem? It would be good if he did.

OP posts:
Original poster
Lemen · 27/02/2017 10:36

I've just googled it and he - or someone else - has a google+ account with that name except they've put a space in the middle

OP posts:
OrangeFluff · 27/02/2017 10:42

I'd just set up a new email address, transfer all the log-ins you want to new email, let any contacts know, and then delete old email. If you don't, then things like this will just keep happening.

Trills · 27/02/2017 10:47

Give up her email?

Why should she?

Original poster
Lemen · 27/02/2017 10:50

grrr... i just checked the forum where they post a lot and where I left a PM about using my email address. This was what they sent to their followers:

"Oh somebody just said i'm using her email Like wtf? for your information i'm using my email for a long time ago .. and it's a coincidence we have a similar email and username .. Tsk i don't care"

Don't care, huh? Its war. I am going to devote myself to finding every single instance of where they used my email address and delete the account!!!

OP posts:
Trills · 27/02/2017 10:53

Change their passwords and give 'em hell.

FeliciaJollygoodfellow · 27/02/2017 10:56

He must have another email address attached to his google account.

I'd be signing him up for all manner of shit and/or resetting passwords etc. for everything that's linked to your email address.

EustaceClarenceScrubb · 27/02/2017 11:09

I had this for a while, my email must have been similar to someone working for the NHS because I used to get all sorts of stuff through, which I am pretty sure due to confidentiality issues I should never have been sent. I used to reply to them, saying they had the wrong email address and I was not the intended recipient, eventually it stopped. Until about six months ago when someone sent me a detailed CV and job application Shock for an NHS job. I replied to say it was the wrong email address, and luckily I did not get anything further.

In your case I would be signing him up for the My Little Pony fan club, the Caravan Club, anything with newsletters to bombard him with. Cheeky bugger!

Trills · 27/02/2017 11:18

She can't sign him up for things because she doesn't know his ACTUAL email address.

She only knows what he THINKS is his email address. Which is her email address.

Pseudonym99 · 27/02/2017 11:18

But how can he log into your email address? Have you tried changing your password? Have you set up a password reminder to your own phone, rather than him to his?

Trills · 27/02/2017 11:20

He can't log into her email.

Pseudonym99 · 27/02/2017 11:22

So how can he authenticate his accounts?

Original poster
Lemen · 27/02/2017 11:25

He doesn't log into my email. I've changed the password several times and the google activity only has uk based log ins.

It sounds like he dopes have a very similar email address and can't be bothered to make sure he doesn't use my one.
maybe he's got the @yahoo version he uses the exact same name as me up to the @ for all his forum accounts.

OP posts:
Original poster
Lemen · 27/02/2017 11:27

@Pseudonym99 I don't think he can authenticate his accounts. Anyway I disavow them first whenever I get a chance.

It doesn't make sense as to why he keeps doing it.

OP posts:
PetrovaFossil1 · 27/02/2017 11:31

I've had exactly the same issue with some woman in America! Huge Trump fan it seems as I get a lot of Trump stuff meant for her...

Incidentally it doesn't matter whether you have dots in your Gmail or not. You could have a dot between every letter and it would still be the same email as that with no dots apparently.

support.google.com/mail/answer/10313?hl=en

Bicarb · 27/02/2017 11:35

I have this, with someone who has a friend with my full name and surname but I use a diminutive for my email and she has the full name. Think samsmith@ vs samanthasmith@

I sent a reply saying she was emailing the wrong person and she replied "are you sure?" Confused

Yup, I'm pretty sure I'm not going on holiday to the Scilly Isles with you. Hmm

RockNRollNerd · 27/02/2017 11:47

Bicarb. My son has the same with a lovely retired teacher in the US. I made contact with him when through sorting out his teachers pension login and online banking one of the notifications of change gave me his actual email.
I contacted him and explained and I forward anything important on and get a lovely apology back. Plus we have a standing invitation to visit him if we are ever in his part of the US!

I worry about him from time to time. The last lot of stuff we got through was all funeral planning and living aids Sad

RhodaBorrocks · 27/02/2017 13:17

My DSIS gave me her Gmail account to forward something to her, only she initially gave me it incorrectly (forgot the underscore).

I got such a rude reply (think insulting, name calling and swearing) from the real address holder that I laughed and cheekily sent back "Are you sure you're not my sister? She's a moody cow too at times!"

She sent a slightly politer response back that she had been annoyed because what I had forwarded on was an invite to a speed dating event and she wasn't single. Hmm TBH if that had been me I'd have just deleted it.

MrsHathaway · 27/02/2017 13:19

Yes, I also get this.

(pending)

OrangeFluff · 27/02/2017 13:29

Trills Because he isn't going to stop using it and the OP is annoyed. This will just keep on happening...