Someone keeps using my email address. WWYD?

[InaccurateDream]

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)

@userchange8945

Are you sure it's not accidental, I have a similar formatted address and the other "Jane blogs" sometimes puts .com not .co.uk so I've had occasional stuff, managed to email her and it hasn't happened since.

Hard to be sure. As I think I mentioned above on another account I was getting occasional emails from a university about a very specialised course and I was able to work it out with that lady (her email was for example InaccurateTDream@) - really easy mistake for her and other people to make.

Here, it's signing up for and purchasing a LOT of things with that email address. It's not occasional, but regularly. I haven't been able to see her real email address either (eg sometimes you get put onto long email strings and can see a real one earlier on, but there's no correspondence only signups and purchases).

She's sometimes used the forget password function (and I presume never got anywhere) as I've had half a dozen reset emails in a short period for one retailer or another. That should give her plenty of opportunity to realise. Or you could take it as proof she just honestly hasn't realised!

I have asked at least two places to let her know she's used the wrong address - places that would actually get to speak to her, like a local car dealership.

So who knows! I should just delete and move on as people say, but it just gets on my wick on occasion.

I get this ALL the time. I feel your pain. I resolved it by using that email address for all online purchases, sign ups etc and I’ve moved to a lesser known provider for important stuff. It’s only been an issue with gmail, IME.

I once ended up as an honorary member of a Californian craft circle, they were highly entertaining. There must be at least three other people mistyping their email abs getting stuff sent to mine. The most annoying one is Australian; she spends way more than she earns (I get a lot of info on her!)

This happens to me too. There is a woman with the same name & last name and I get her emails. She likes to buy Jimmy Choo shoes and is a teacher in a primary school. I mostly get receipts from her shopping trips and the staff room emails from her school.

I get this at least once a month with important documents for the same woman. This month I got her details for renting a house, complete with full address, ID checks (incl. DOB) and bank details. In the past I have received her concert tickets and yesterday an email from her friend asking how her doctors appointment went. I ignore them at all times, except the one where her work had emailed me to put her on furlough and included her formal letter with her job title and salary etc - that one I did ring them and advise I wasn't actually her.

I don't understand why she can't double check what she is writing on the forms - this has happened so many times now! If the company inputs it incorrectly then that can't be helped but she has definitely done it herself on multiple occasions. It would be harsh to cancel her flight but I do get how irritating it is, I would just ignore it personally and leave her to sort it.

My personal email address is [email protected]. My work addresses have always been firstname.surname.

I’m a professional and intelligent, and there have been times where I entered [email protected], maybe out of habit of the first order and then knowing it’s a personal thing so using gmail. That has included orders which has meant I haven’t received the confirmation email.

It’s not deliberate or laziness on my part, but a genuine error. Says a lot about you as a person that you would even consider cancelling their flights out of what is most likely an error...

I had one of these a few weeks ago; it was a 'do not reply' confirmation of a delivery to someone in America! I use my name, which is uncommon, and I couldn't reply, so just deleted it. If I'd thought, I could have looked for similar usernames.

I get it too, also from an American (and she supported Trump!) I reply to the personal ones (eg new baby pictures sent) asking them to let he know she’s used the wrong address again (!) and ignore the rest. It happens. I may have done it myself!

At least it's not just me!

Getting a personal email about/to them would actually help I think but it's all shops/insurance/cars/flights/media at the mo.

@StealthPolarBear

Once is an error. Over and over and over again despite being told is laziness. Isn't it basic stuff that if you have to put your email address into something important - job application, flight booking etc you check and double check?

This was my thought when I got the flight notification hence creating a thread in annoyance!

Now I've had two cups of tea and am beginning to be a bit more chill again - until next time.

But yes I don't quite get the mentality of it!

I got my gmail account in the very early days so it's firstname.surname. That was absolutely fine when I was living in London as I have an Irish name, so even though it's a less common spelling UK people didn't know that and always used the spelling that I had written down.

Then I moved back to Ireland where everybody thinks they know how to spell my surname, so they don't look at it properly. So my emails were pinging off to poor firstname.surnname. Even the tax office thinks they know better than me how to spell my own surname, but they don't email me they send letters, so I can't be bothered with the bureaucracy needed to correct them. Now every time I have to write down my email (electronic forms are fine) I have to put a note beside it saying 'NOTE : one n in surname'.

Mistakes are easy to make, but that's why you use your eyes to check for them. Especially on stuff like that. Spam is a bit more forgivable, booking flights under someone else's email address is just stupid. How has she not noticed either? Surely she needs the email of the flights to use for boarding passes?

Change your password, and cancel the flights.

Last year before Covid I started getting emails from a couple holidaying in Europe. Interesting stories & photos the first couple of times but soon got fed up with updates for all the cousins & the Great Uncle Joe.
I replied a couple of times asking to be removed from the group, in the end I just deleted all & whoever was meant to be the receiver never got the holiday snaps.
I have a firstname@isp email which is handy for me but accept I get others mistyped names.

And remember it's not the recipient's fault

Of course it isn't the recipients fault. The recipients are people like the op, getting emails intended for someone else! It's usually the someone else's fault for inputting the wrong email address in the first place.

Sounds annoying, but rather than cancel the flight can you change any of her info to say 'wrong email' in whatever fields you can edit? I reckon her phone/computer is auto filling with the wrong one for this to be happening so often. I bet she's not even typing it in.

So glad to learn it’s not just me! I’ve received invite to a hen weekend, details of pest control appointments, etc etc. I have a slightly unusual first name, and reckon I may have found the culprit on Fb. Must try messaging her.

I’ve had this for going on a decade. I know where she works, when she’s looking for a new house, that she rides horses and plays hockey. I’ve even had job offers coming in. If it’s something official I reply to sender and say that this happens a lot with this Daisy, I’m concerned as I’m not the right Daisy and also don’t want the company to be in trouble with GDPR. Since that’s come in, it’s been a godsend as it seems to have decreased the frequency considerably so assume she’s been spoken too.

She must be so stressed not getting her confirmations etc though - I assume she realises afterwards and goes in and changes her email address. If you can reply to one that’s more likely to have a real person at the end, they’re more likely to pass on a message when they contact her again.

Maybe she typed it in wrong once without realising and her device stored it automatically fills it in for her?

I accidentally put my email in wrong buying dresses, using .com instead of .co.uk - person with same name was very nice about it, guessed my proper address and forwarded on all correspondence 😆

I reckon her phone/computer is auto filling with the wrong one for this to be happening so often. I bet she's not even typing it in That was my first thought.

I have a genuinely unique name which means I can always get it as an email address/username and have never met anyone else with my name (because there aren't any!)

I would have a nervous breakdown if someone else was getting my emails. it blows my mind that people are so blasé.

I occasionally get emails for someone who has the .co.uk version of my email address that I have the .com for. If I’m feeling kind I just ping it back to the sender and say ‘this is not for me, please check your info’, (and if I’m feeling unkind I mention it might be a possible GDPR breach) I presume it’s just a mistake/auto fill

Change her seat, add on five suitcases, and give her an Indian vegetarian meal. And remove her advance passenger information, so she has to queue up at checkin to resubmit it before she can print out her boarding pass. That’ll teach her.

Her computer is almost certainly autofilling the details from one time she has got it wrong.

I have this with more than one person in the usa , its because mine is a simple just my name@ one .

@Changechangychange

Change her seat, add on five suitcases, and give her an Indian vegetarian meal. And remove her advance passenger information, so she has to queue up at checkin to resubmit it before she can print out her boarding pass. That’ll teach her.

That’s what I would do too!

Earlier this year, I had someone send money to my paypal account. My name is not uncommon, the sender said he just made a slip on the email address. He’s saying he can’t reverse the transaction.

He is trying to get me to send the money back, but I am insisting that the matter is resolved through paypal in case it’s a scam. We’re talking almost six hundred quid here.

I’ve taken legal advice and providing I don’t try and withdraw the money, they can’t touch me. Not that I would, it’s not mine.