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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Someone keeps using my email address. WWYD?

276 replies

InaccurateDream · 22/06/2021 08:31

Someone keeps using my very boring firstname lastname icloud account.

I know it sounds like a minor irritation but it's more than just spam. Eg they bought loads of stuff at Walmart using the address so I was getting order confirmation, order dispatch, order arrived emails, product reminder emails etc. It's at least 'medium annoying!'

I'm getting loads of insurance emails, lots of Fox Nation ones. And it's all the same person so not spam as such, but purposeful activity.

Last year she bought flights using my email. I could see her full name, address, names of her children and even had access to cancel the flight.

I got in touch with the place where she bought it and asked them to take the account down. They did - until the next time.

She's just bought a new flight (short internal US flight)! I can cancel it in one click. I'm really tempted to - what would you do?

There was a US phone number in the booking details so I have messaged it (it was on imessage) and asked them to stop using my email address please (I was nice). I sent a follow up saying I would cancel the flight in the morning.

Message has been delivered but not read. Of course that could be fake too.

I can't find her on social media/Facebook. Though I have messaged someone who could be her son.

I just don't know if it's laziness, stupidity, maliciousness. Probably the first. But it's making me grumpy when I think about it (which is only when I get a new email with all her details in it!).

Would deleting her flight be a step too far?

(have changed username for this thread)

OP posts:
Witsend101 · 23/06/2021 17:54

I made a mistake recently on a hotel booking where I put my email address but with the wrong ending (eg .com instead of .co.uk) I realised almost immediately and contacted the hotel but they said they couldn't amend it but that it was fine and gave me booking ref etc. Except it wasn't as the person who got the email wrongly cancelled my booking. I couldn't fathom why anyone would do that when they haven't paid for it so what harm is it to them

mymummymymummy · 23/06/2021 18:01

Sorry, can she access your account? Because if she can she can get hold of all sorts of information - your passwords, classified information, financial health etc - all sorts of stuff. This is a hackers wet dream.

HyggeTygge · 23/06/2021 18:15

@mymummymymummy

Sorry, can she access your account? Because if she can she can get hold of all sorts of information - your passwords, classified information, financial health etc - all sorts of stuff. This is a hackers wet dream.
No, she can't. The OP explains what's happening in her posts.
WorkHardPlayHard1 · 23/06/2021 18:39

@Alaimo

I have two gmail addresses and I have it with both. The first one, is my name + surname initial. There is a woman with a very similar name who works as a radio producer, so I get all these emails intended for her - (embargoed) news about new music releases, info about where to collect my backstage pass for some awards show (pre-covid), and the best one, an excel sheet with the personal phone numbers of dozens and dozens of celebrities.

My other email address is apparently similar to that of a hippy in the US. I regularly get emails from his friends asking if he knows where they can get some weed...

Ooh exciting celeb contacts!

Anyone interesting and have you ever been tempted to contact them? 😜

godmum56 · 23/06/2021 18:48

@Witsend101

I made a mistake recently on a hotel booking where I put my email address but with the wrong ending (eg .com instead of .co.uk) I realised almost immediately and contacted the hotel but they said they couldn't amend it but that it was fine and gave me booking ref etc. Except it wasn't as the person who got the email wrongly cancelled my booking. I couldn't fathom why anyone would do that when they haven't paid for it so what harm is it to them
because they might think its some kind of scam
Harls1969 · 23/06/2021 18:54

I've had this loads. Invitations to family events in the US - not my family and I'm in the UK. Can I step in to play basketball? again in the US. Various receipts for appliances and services (again all in the US). Not all for the same person either. So there are several people in America with a similar email address to me Confused

MilduraS · 23/06/2021 19:01

I've had the same. My email address is initial and last name. I've managed to contact two out of three of them. There's a woman in Glasgow who signed up for Depop and was getting notifications to my account, I managed to contact her after she forwarded an email from her work address. Then there was a woman in Manchester who signed me up to a few local newsletters and kept sending order confirmations my way. Her husband forwarded their son's french homework (his work signature included a Manchester address) and I responded to let him know. I never did manage to sort it with the woman in Liverpool who had me signed up for alerts from estate agents and a car agency. She still hires a car every few months and I get the confirmation.

Mamanyt · 23/06/2021 19:06

The first thing I would do is change the password on the email account...like RIGHT NOW, and the second thing that I would do is to contact the email company and request an investigation. This is, after all, THEIR problem.

Diva66 · 23/06/2021 19:10

Cancel everything.

NecklessMumster · 23/06/2021 19:22

My DP has this, his is also someone in the US, flights, family invites, church stuff, bra sales! Think she puts a capital first letter and his is lowercase. He's tried to tell her but now bins them.

LiveRightNow · 23/06/2021 19:23

Sounds like she maybe has a form auto fill set up in her browser in which she typed the wrong email once and now auto fills it in every time but is so similar to her own email it doesn't get noticed.

How bloody annoying

looptheloopinahulahoop · 23/06/2021 19:43

I mentioned that my mum has an Irish name and gets emails from a dentist in Dublin. Well, she has just received a confirmation of a dinner booking in Dublin.

Her email address is [email protected]

The email has been sent to [email protected]

It's not an error, Google is directing emails to the wrong email address.

Mosaic123 · 23/06/2021 20:06

Isn't it that Gmail ignores the dots in an address? I just delete the ones I get unless I feel in the mood to inform the company or person.

NumberTheory · 23/06/2021 20:13

@looptheloopinahulahoop

I mentioned that my mum has an Irish name and gets emails from a dentist in Dublin. Well, she has just received a confirmation of a dinner booking in Dublin.

Her email address is [email protected]

The email has been sent to [email protected]

It's not an error, Google is directing emails to the wrong email address.

It is an error. Gmail ignores all full stops within the name side of an email. Once your mother registered “[email protected]” that would have blocked anyone from creating “[email protected]” or any other version of sarahssmith with dots in it. There is no [email protected] account. (Does the same thing with capital v. Little letters too). Not all email providers do this, but gmail does.

support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en

purplebunny2012 · 23/06/2021 20:15

@Purplewithred

That is totally weird - I would assume it's a mistake, but maybe I'm being naive. Can you change your password or something?
They aren't accessing the email account so that would achieve nothing. The only thing I can think of is to set a rule to bounce back any emails with the person's name in the body, or put up an auto-reply that any emails are not for this account and will automatically be deleted
purplebunny2012 · 23/06/2021 20:16

YABU to cancel someone else's flights, IMO

DynamoKev · 23/06/2021 20:22

@Mamanyt

The first thing I would do is change the password on the email account...like RIGHT NOW, and the second thing that I would do is to contact the email company and request an investigation. This is, after all, THEIR problem.
No it isn’t
Mosaic123 · 23/06/2021 20:22

That's so interesting about the dots Number Theory. I had my address for many years before I started getting the other person with my name's emails. Luckily it's not the one I use for most things.

pinkoctopuss · 23/06/2021 20:29

I once had an email to me and another recipient from someone I'd never heard of, saying "hi folks, I hope you haven't fallen out with me..." Confused

Ostara212 · 23/06/2021 20:37

I don't understand why being an early adopter would make your email more likely to be used in error?

I'd cancel the flight. It will show up a glaring hole in the airline system that should be fixed. Maybe not if it's really soon but
I'd say do that.

EndoplasmicReticulum · 23/06/2021 20:41

Ostara - because we are more likely to have email addresses that are just our names.
So - my email is [email protected].

Anyone who got their email later will find the names alone already taken and have to add a load of numbers.

Someone in another country has the same name as me so just assumes that they can have that email, even though it's already taken.

Ostara212 · 23/06/2021 20:43

@EndoplasmicReticulum

Ostara - because we are more likely to have email addresses that are just our names. So - my email is [email protected].

Anyone who got their email later will find the names alone already taken and have to add a load of numbers.

Someone in another country has the same name as me so just assumes that they can have that email, even though it's already taken.

Thanks I thought if I had JaneSmith@ etc then no one else could sign up with that unless they added numbers and just thought it must have been like that from the start of emails existing?
Yourcatisnotsorry · 23/06/2021 21:19

I get these. Mine is Canadian and runs a small business and I get loads of payments from her customers and random emails. I just ignore it all.

EndoplasmicReticulum · 23/06/2021 21:28

You're right. Nobody else can have JaneSmith@.
But there's nothing to stop someone thinking that they can, and telling everyone that's their email address.
They will never get the emails, obviously, as they come to you.

Ostara212 · 23/06/2021 21:45

@EndoplasmicReticulum

You're right. Nobody else can have JaneSmith@. But there's nothing to stop someone thinking that they can, and telling everyone that's their email address. They will never get the emails, obviously, as they come to you.
So... In the case of the OP, someone would have provided an email address but never looked for their shopping confirmations?

I would be cancelling everything till the person got the message!

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