Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2

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:

SpacePenguin · 29/05/2018 16:56

There are known issues with using dots as unique signifiers in email addresses. They're generally not recognised/counted, and continually cause problems.

The dot.com / dot.co.uk thing is obviously different and can totally be avoided.

www.google.ie/amp/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5426127/amp/Do-dots-Gmail-email-accounts-matter-Google.html

Lweji · 29/05/2018 16:57

I will try to create an account on a website only to find I can't

Good points, but it's still their problem.

You can easily ask for a password reboot sent to your email and either take their eBay money, or shut down that account.

NetballHoop · 29/05/2018 17:02

We had similar at work a few years back. A US based medical centre that could dispense Methadone had a similar email address to us and we would get scanned medical records from addicts asking for new prescriptions on a regular basis. We always forwarded them to the correct address and deleted them, but they were very revealing.

StormTreader · 29/05/2018 17:03

Most places have a "forgotten password" option that will send the reset to the registered email address.
Reset the password, clear out all their personal information, start using it. Its your email address, thats the master key for most internet stuff.

Chouetted · 29/05/2018 17:08

I've had some amazingly shirty responses when trying to tell they've got the wrong email address.

The best one I had though was an argument about some task at work between work colleagues that I was accidentally copied into. I happened to have some experience in the area, so I wrote back explaining and also giving them my own opinion on the matter. I got a very nice response back to say thank you!

lhastingsmua · 29/05/2018 17:08

Well if you have their number then just text and briefly explain the situation. I’m sure they will be mortified once they find out that you can access so much of their info.

TheBrilloPad · 29/05/2018 17:11

I had this with a lettings agent the other side of the UK from me- confirmation of my viewing of X property. So I emailed back nicely with a "think you've been passed the wrong email address so your customer won't get this" and got a nice acknowledgment in reply and a promise to update their system. I got THIRTEEN further emails from the same company over the next month. And for each one, I replied and said "as previously advised when emailed by X and Y, this is not the correct email address for your customer" etc. It drove me MENTAL.

lhastingsmua · 29/05/2018 17:11

And go over the security settings with your email provider just in case - turn on two step verification, make sure your mobile number is up to date etc

lhastingsmua · 29/05/2018 17:14

I had this recently, I tried to sign up to onedrive but someone was using my email address so I couldn’t make an account. I was extremely confused but was able to reset the password on their account and remove my email address. (Their account was inactive and never used so they didn’t lose any data)

Jenasaurus · 29/05/2018 17:15

I had this with my new mobile number. I kept getting aunty caroline messaging Mick ! she then asked Mick for his account and sort code to send his birthday money to him. I explained I wasnt Mick and she apologised but imagine if someone less honest received that. it would be an invitation to receive money! Do mobile numbers and emails do the rounds, so one moment its one persons the next its handed out to someone else?

Lweji · 29/05/2018 17:16

Their account was inactive and never used so they didn’t lose any data

I'm not surprised, as they probably never got their email verified.

TheMonkeyMummy · 29/05/2018 17:16

@hardlysurprised I have the opposite. Mine is .co.uk and the .com is a lady in Sweden. Despite me telling this to people, they still automatically write down .com

Thankfully there are so many other ways of contacting people these days but a decade ago it was an issue.

Neverender · 29/05/2018 17:22

I kept getting calls asking me to come and collect a poorly child from school. Called the school each time but they took ages to remove my number. Only stopped when I got a call for go and collect my new Landrover and told the dealership. I told them about the school as well and haven't had a call since.

caoraich · 29/05/2018 17:23

This has happened to me too - eventually I worked out as I have the .com and they have the .co.uk

Don't worry about being locked out of your account. What is likely to have happened is they've signed into their phone/device and ticked "keep me logged in" with the correct address, possibly immediately after setting it up, but then the one they are actually giving out e.g. to shops and in forms is the incorrect one. They won't think they're locked out of their account so are unlikely to reset it unless they forget their own password, which won't affect you.

Make sure you set up multiple step authentication via your phone number and have security questions that pertain directly to you (e.g. instead of mother's maiden name, personalise it to something you'd know and is obviously not their info e.g. "the place where DH and I had our first date") - this is so that if they try to sign in to a new device with the wrong email address and can't get in, it might make them twig the issue is the address and not the password.

Also do email back if they get something that seems to come from an actual human.

The way I sorted it in the end was my person had emailed a window cleaner through gumtree for a quote and I was able to get the window cleaner to tell her she'd used the wrong email, as he also had her phone number!

UtterlyDesperate · 29/05/2018 17:28

I've had this - someone is in serious shit with their university (it's in the States - I've contacted them to let them know that they have an incorrect email for their miscreant, to no avail), has signed me up for Twitter (I have my own account, and have no intention of confirming theirs, no matter how often Twitter asks me to) and then today, the absolute gold standard, started receiving Tinder notifications. (I'm not on Facebook and definitely haven't even browsed Tinder )

Frankly, I'm not surprised she's in trouble with her university - she's clearly as dim as anything . (Before anyone jumps on me: I do tell her university every time that she might also like to check her various other accounts, as I receive other emails for her that I can't do anything to alert her about. I've even suggested they tell her to contact me direct so I can tell her which sites she's used the wrong email for. I am not a complete cow )

chocolateworshipper · 29/05/2018 17:31

You could reply to every one saying they've breached GDPR legislation since they clearly don't have permission to use your email address. Might as well have some good come from this GDPR stuff that I am utterly sick of

QuimReaper · 29/05/2018 17:49

Gmail definitely has a problem with dots. I have a twin in America who has a dot and I don't, and I used to get heaps of her mail. I think she changed her address as it's slowed down considerably.

It was sort of fascinating getting little glimpses into American domestic life

TheFifthKey · 29/05/2018 17:54

Gmail doesn’t have a problem with dots -if you have [email protected] you ALSO have [email protected] and [email protected] and [email protected] and every permutation therein. Nobody else could have signed up for any of those. They’re just getting their email address wrong, plain and simple.

Yippeeeeee · 29/05/2018 18:36

Ugh, get this ALL THE TIME.

I have a very generic name - think "Jane Smith". I was lucky enough to snag "[email protected]" as my email address. Now I get emails for every bloody Jane Smith in the Western Hemisphere!

I used to fight it by replying to say they have the wrong person, or contacting the website via chat, but I've given up as it happens so often.

Instead, I now do as a PP mentioned - 'forgot my password', log into whatever the account is and change the email to something random, like "[email protected]". I know it's sad, but it makes me feel a little better.

reddressblueshoes · 29/05/2018 18:44

The things you're worried about:

Her somehow resetting your password - you can set up two-step verification in your email address, so the only way to reset your password is by sending a link to either another email address (I currently use my work email) or a mobile phone. If you do this, and she tries to reset the password, you'll just get a link sent to your mobile/other email address which you can ignore.
Her having an account somewhere you want it - again, you have the power here, though if its something 'proper' like eBay its unlikely she'll manage it and she'll need to click a link confirming which she can't do as that email will come to you. If its something that doesn't require verification, you can just request a password reset and claim her account.

There's really nothing she can do except sign you up for lots of annoying emails, which to be fair is something technically anyone can do if they know their email. I would suggest ringing her if you have the number - its likely that either she has a yahoo account but keeps filling in gmail, or that she is .co.uk instead of .com. Both of these seem like incredibly stupid mistakes, but its something a lot of people do- for example if you're 'Jane Smith' and her email is 'JaneMSmith' but it comes up as 'Jane Smith' she might just forget that she had to add in an initial because someone else got Jane Smith first. So - she's a bit dumb, but there's a limited number of ways it can effect you and far more it can effect her.

KyloRenaissance · 29/05/2018 19:02

I have a very similar name to someone at work and get loads of emails for them.

Eg I am Katy Brown, she is Katie Browne.

No matter how many times we tell people they still send to the wrong person

DisturblinglyOrangeScrambleEgg · 29/05/2018 19:19

I have a doppelgänger - I get cvs sent to her, all her gym and Fitbit info - I've mailed th people looking for jobs back and told them it's the wrong address because it seems cruel not to, but as I don't know what her address is, I can't get her to stop.

I used to have another in Kansas, but she got married and changed her name (I was invited to all sorts o f fun sounding stuff on the run up, and included in all the hen party planning! I found her real email address in one of the emails and mailed her, letting her know, but she didn't respond, which I found a bit rude really

Flip

1 2