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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Someone keeps giving out my email address!

47 replies

Murane · 29/05/2018 16:11

At first I just got receipts. Then an order confirmation for some clothes they ordered. I deleted the emails. Now I've received student loan info and their online banking statement. I tried to ring the bank but they just put me on hold and used up all my phone credit.

AIBU to ring the phone number that was on the order confirmation and tell them their email address is not what they think it is? I'm worried sick that they'll get nasty or insist it IS their email address, or even try to access my email account if they believe it's theirs.

OP posts:
TheTurnOfTheScrew · 29/05/2018 16:15

I've had this too.
This person has had hotel bookings and even job offers come through to me. TBH because I'm never sure what's might be phishing I don't reply or unsubscribe, just block all the senders and keep a keen eye on my bank/paypal accounts, which have never been touched.

mummyretired · 29/05/2018 16:17

I had it too. Person was missing a full stop in their email address - I found out the proper one and threatened to email their employer, as I was receiving confidential HR emails!

coconutbun · 29/05/2018 16:18

Sorry this is happening OP, that must be really annoying! Would it be inconvenient for you to get a new email address? Who knows how much they've signed you up for or who they've given your current email to!

AgentProvocateur · 29/05/2018 16:20

Just phone them and tell them Confused They’ll need that information that being sent to you.

hardlysurprised · 29/05/2018 16:21

I have a name twin with a .com (mine) and .co.uk (hers)

I've had her P60, her work shifts, emails from her Grandmother, her £50 topshop birthday voucher, invites to parties, endless annoying emails for her purchases and things she's subscribed to.
I've done nice. I've asked kindly.

Now I just sign her up to Groupon etc regularly. All my Unwanted GDPR I've updated to her address.

Fed up with her stupidity

ruby1234 · 29/05/2018 16:21

I got this too... shop receipts, meet ups for coffee, charity race stuff which I just ignored ... until I got a job offer, contract of employment and salary information from the military.
I emailed them back and said thanks very much, looking forward to starting with you, thrilled to get the job even though I had never even applied for it.
Got a sharp response asking me to delete the information.
I don't know if it was just someone missing/adding a detail in the email address, but I haven't had any more!

BumpowderSneezeonAndSnot · 29/05/2018 16:24

I get this from 3 different people. I've been nice and responded to the sender's saying they perhaps may want to double check who they send things to. Now I've taken the Joe Lycett approach to it all. If they cba to check properly it's not really my responsibility and is quite fun now.

Blostma · 29/05/2018 16:25

I've had this too. A lady who lives in NY and keeps ordering and returning stuff from weird on line stores. She had a credit card refused recently too. I think she keeps missing out a full stop in the middle of her (our) name. It is v.v.v.irritating.

Original poster
Murane · 29/05/2018 16:26

I'm just confused. How do they not know their own email address? Why do they not realise they're not receiving their emails? How much spam will I be inundated with? And most worryingly, how are they verifying the email address when they sign up for things? Will they try to reset my email password if they think it's theirs?

No, I'm not changing my email address with every single bill, newsletter, website, family member, etc. It would be a huge inconvenience.

OP posts:
jay55 · 29/05/2018 16:31

Same, I was nice when her catering company sent their invoice to me the first time and let them know they’d got the address wrong. Now it all gets binned.

The worst was being included in an email chain planning a bachelorette party, the maid of honour got really pissed off when I pointed out I wasn’t who they wanted insisting they were using the correct address and I was the problem.

wink1970 · 29/05/2018 16:32

OP, is your concern that you're getting someone's emails, or that you have been 'identity stolen'?

If it's the former, reply to sender pointing out the spelling mistake. Or if it's obvious, be nice and forward on to who it might be for.

mynameyourname · 29/05/2018 16:33

insisting they were using the correct address and I was the problem

Grin the mind boggles

horsestar · 29/05/2018 16:34

Set up your email to have two step validation and get a text with a code when logging on somewhere new. Could be they have changed their email recently and accidentally put it in wrong, most places don't ask to validate change of email.
I would text advising them of the error, I assume you have all their contact details, such as home address?

IdogMax · 29/05/2018 16:37

I keep getting emails ment for someone else, definitely not phishing. They are all from business around the same area in London so my email address is [email protected] and the ones I’m getting are myname(.)[email protected], from a bit of research I’ve found that gmail don’t recognise the(.) in an email address so they will come to me regardless.

I’ve had a carpet shop, a b&q a gym in a hotel and a few others. It’s doing my head in!

FlaviaAlbia · 29/05/2018 16:37

Someone keeps using mine. The actual email address.
I know their address and lots of personal information now and I can't fathom why they never wonder that they don't receive the emails.

In the end, I logged into as many of their accounts as would let me change the email address without a password and changed their email to [email protected]

It stopped Grin

bananamonkey · 29/05/2018 16:38

Same! Theatre tickets, flight confirmations, wedding arrangements, reference requests and most recently their new home insurance documents. It’s more than one person as well! I’ve replied to a couple but can’t do anything about the booking confirmations, meh not my problem if they’re an idiot 🤷🏻‍♀️

LeChatDeNuit · 29/05/2018 16:40

I had this with somebody in South Africa who used a . in their address. Over the years I’ve received family letters, family photos, hospital bills... Grin it wasn’t until I contacted the hospital about the error that it stopped.

problembottom · 29/05/2018 16:41

I have had this problem for a few years! And I really don’t understand it as my email address is this format: [email protected]

I have had amongst other things:
Council chasing me for unpaid tax
Very personal family email chain - an argument involving granny
Zumba hoops (they are often cancelled)
Primary school updates
New Look receipts (never shopped there)
Endless subscriptions to dating and gaming websites
Job offer contract

I tried to make contact and get them stopped but was ignored so now I’ve got tough. If I can I delete her account on every website she signs up to in the hope it might piss her off and she might stop. They still keep coming!

ParentInCharge · 29/05/2018 16:44

This is why I have both the .com and the .co.uk email addresses for my name. It happens so easy. It'll be something really simple like a missing full stop or something.

I used to give out the wrong telephone number regularly because I kept mixing up the last two numbers by accident.15 years later I have learned my number properly but I may have pissed someone off for a while. Oops.

jamoncrumpets · 29/05/2018 16:46

I have this same issue. This person has lost a lot of jobs because of interviews being emailed to my address. I email back every time and correct them but it's so bloody annoying.

Lweji · 29/05/2018 16:47

Surely it's their problem, not yours. Apart from the unrequested emails.

They can't access your email account if they don't have the back up contact info, surely.
Unless it's someone you know.

TalkinPeece · 29/05/2018 16:49

I do not use gmail or any of the generics
so never have that problem
even though my email address is published regularly on the internet

Original poster
Murane · 29/05/2018 16:53

Definitely not phishing or identity theft. The person is creating accounts with my email address and buying things on their own credit card to be delivered to their own address. They've given my email address to their bank and student loans too.

My concerns are 1: They will try to "recover" my email account believing it to be theirs, or 2: I will try to create an account on a website only to find I can't, e.g. If they've signed up to EBay using my email then I can't create my own account because they've already created one!

OP posts:
Blondiecub0109 · 29/05/2018 16:56

Gads this happened to me, they were in Montreal I had the Hotmail.com and they were Hotmail.ca, lots of emails in French, when I got married I took the oppportunity to change my email to my full (unusual) first name rather than the initial and ended up closing the old email address

ToadOfSadness · 29/05/2018 16:56

Some of it might be caused by auto fill. They type it in with the wrong address and it gets saved so every time after it will be filled in with the wrong one.

If you have filters you might be able to direct the ones that are not yours into a folder of their own or bounce them back.

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