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)

[HyggeTygge]

@looptheloopinahulahoop

No, it's her fault as she's putting that email address in as hers when, say, booking a flight. They don't take those addresses out of the form and retype them in manually for the confirmation emails

No that isn't true - as I said above, it's about where gmail or the internet service provider are sending the emails. If you have a look at the actual address they are using, you will see that it's a different one,.

For example my husband is loop.hoop:gmail.com but gets emails for loop_hoop*@gmail*.com

It's gmail's fault for not making the distinction.

If you have a gmail address, say abcde*@gmail, you also own that address with a dot in anywhere. So a.bcde , ab.cde , abcd.e @gmail*.com would all come to you.

Underscores may be different.

[HyggeTygge]

Ignore asterisks in my post, that's mumsnet seeing an @ and trying to tag someone.

[OhRene]

You warned her. So start cancelling.

A mistake is one thing but to repeatedly give out the wrong email is stupid and she gets what she's deserves. It's no different from giving out a wrong telephone number or home address.

[UneFoisAuChalet]

I’ve had this for years with someone who has the same name but lives in a different country.

My longstanding email - [email protected]. Her email- [email protected]. I get EVERYTHING. I know where she holidays, where her kids go to school, that she plays golf and has bought a new iPad. She has CBT and her sons regularly skips school. I’ve emailed her friends to let them know (after receiving a passive aggressive email from a friend who revealed embarrassing information). I let her uncle know after being sent numerous family pics. But they still keep coming.

I contacted gmail and they literally had nothing to say. So I gave up. Junior has now left high school. She’s joined a swanky golf club and they start digging her pool next week.

[Quartz2208]

I have a golfer as well - she golfs a lot in North Carolina somewhere and must keep on missing out on opportunities. SOmeone else ubers a lot in Austria (they can be the same person)

I did once get a poor woman who had sent out the wrong email address on her child's birthday invites so I had to forward all the replies.

It is a real gmail problem certainly

[TwoBlueFish]

I’ve had something similar. Got lots of emails from Dyson in Australia with invoices etc. I contacted them and also managed to find her on social media and let her know. They did eventually stop.

I also had a TikTok account with over 50k subscribers set up with my email. Not the same person, I deleted it.

[DynamoKev]

@UneFoisAuChalet

I’ve had this for years with someone who has the same name but lives in a different country.

My longstanding email - [email protected]. Her email- [email protected]. I get EVERYTHING. I know where she holidays, where her kids go to school, that she plays golf and has bought a new iPad. She has CBT and her sons regularly skips school. I’ve emailed her friends to let them know (after receiving a passive aggressive email from a friend who revealed embarrassing information). I let her uncle know after being sent numerous family pics. But they still keep coming.

I contacted gmail and they literally had nothing to say. So I gave up. Junior has now left high school. She’s joined a swanky golf club and they start digging her pool next week.

That isn't 2 different e-mail addresses.

[Keepingitreal14]

TBH I may have done the same occasionally as my personal email is [email protected] my work one is [email protected] occasionally I mistype my personal with dots, if someone is unlucky enough to share my name they could well have received some of my emails. Annoying but not intentional, I mean why would I not want my flight details?!

[Mumoftwoinprimary]

I have a common name and got in early with a particular email type.

So I am (say!) [email protected] (family member who was an incredibly early adopter)

All the other Sarah Smiths (of which there are many) will have to have Sarah.Smith1 or 2 or 47 or 1984 or whatever they choose.

I get a lot of mail that isn’t for me.

[Changechangychange]

It's gmail's fault for not making the distinction

Gmail will not let you sign up with firstname.lastname if firstnamelastname, firstname_lastname, or any other permutation has already been taken.

The culprits either have firstnamelastname1974 emails, and are mistyping.

Or they are like my auntie, who thinks gmail email addresses are just reserved for people in advance without you needing to set them up, so she can use auntie@gmail right now without ever needing to create an account, and the email will be magically sent to her computer, and not any of the other auntie lastnames in the world.

[Sparkletastic]

Her inefficiency would madden me. I would cancel the flight. Might focus her mind a bit more than all the other efforts have done.

[tallduckandhandsome]

@Changechangychange

It's gmail's fault for not making the distinction

Gmail will not let you sign up with firstname.lastname if firstnamelastname, firstname_lastname, or any other permutation has already been taken.

The culprits either have firstnamelastname1974 emails, and are mistyping.

Or they are like my auntie, who thinks gmail email addresses are just reserved for people in advance without you needing to set them up, so she can use auntie@gmail right now without ever needing to create an account, and the email will be magically sent to her computer, and not any of the other auntie lastnames in the world.

Gmail is not faultless either. For example my email address is something like [email protected] and Gmail sometimes lets emails come through to me for [email protected].

[DynamoKev]

@Changechangychange

It's gmail's fault for not making the distinction

Gmail will not let you sign up with firstname.lastname if firstnamelastname, firstname_lastname, or any other permutation has already been taken.

The culprits either have firstnamelastname1974 emails, and are mistyping.

Or they are like my auntie, who thinks gmail email addresses are just reserved for people in advance without you needing to set them up, so she can use auntie@gmail right now without ever needing to create an account, and the email will be magically sent to her computer, and not any of the other auntie lastnames in the world.

Exactly.

[Faithless12]

@LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow

is it exactly the same?? No "dots/fullstops/underscores" ? I am sure I read somewhere that sometimes systems don't see those so

firstnamelastname@emailprovider will get confused with firstname.lastname@emailprovider

so she may be using her correct address but the responses are being diverted to you??

I had an issue once with instagram I use my initials email for that and someone else had them with capital and an underscore. I sent an email via another account and also changed the password and signed them out, not had any bother since!

This is only true of gmail.

[TotorosCatBus]

I have [email protected] (not my real name) and get the emails for [email protected] because gmail can't distinguish between the two. She is a treasurer for a golf club and I get the minutes from their meetings

[ClaireEclair]

You could contact the companies she uses and let them know it’s your email address. Kick up a fuss and claim GDPR and privacy issues so they take it seriously.

I would assume that this person doesn’t even realise she’s entering the wrong email address. Maybe her computer fills in the wrong email address automatically?

[Faithless12]

Hit send too soon. They see it as a selling point:
support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en-GB

[DynamoKev]

Gmail is not faultless either. For example my email address is something like [email protected] and Gmail sometimes lets emails come through to me for [email protected].

You are misunderstanding. Both of those e-mail addresses (with and without the dot) are yours. The fact that someone else thinks they can use [email protected] is not gmail's fault - and they are not allowing the other person to use that address but occasionally send a few to you.

[Changechangychange]

[email protected] and [email protected] are literally the same email address with gmail. If you have [email protected], nobody else has registered [email protected] because it is the same email address, and is already taken.

Go and try registering [email protected] with different underscores, asterisks, and full stops. It won’t let you.

Whoever is sending you emails has decided they have [email protected] when they actually have [email protected], or [email protected], or something. They don’t have [email protected]

[DynamoKev]

@TotorosCatBus

I have [email protected] (not my real name) and get the emails for [email protected] because gmail can't distinguish between the two. She is a treasurer for a golf club and I get the minutes from their meetings

No - you have both of those (as a single account). Whoever is sending you the minutes is using your address not the proper address of their treasurer.

[stevalnamechanger]

Call her

[Berthatydfil]

I have had similar. My name is say Kathryn Smith (it’s not ) Kath for short and I have Kath.smith @email account as my email and she is Katherine Smith. She is in another far off continent and registered her broadband as Katherine Smith but put the contact email as Kath.Smith @email account without checking if the email was already allocated to anyone (ie me)
So I get all her broadband bills overdue notices and other spam. I tried contacting the overseas broadband supplier but they didn’t change it so it all goes into junk now.

[Orgasmagorical]

I could see her full name, address, names of her children

I'd be sorely tempted to send her one of these round robin letters with a Christmas card this year - asking her if she enjoyed her flight to Wherever on Such and Such a date; how were Eenie and Meenie, was Miny sick again?; is she still using the [cheap crap] she bought from Walmart, she'll not be needing to up her insurance policies with Insurance is Us.com buying that kind of tat. You could have hours of fun

[Rover83]

I get this constantly as my email is [email protected] and hers I assume is [email protected]. I get all of her booking appointments, I get quotes for her all the time one time I even got a very detailed report from her counsellor. I tend to do what I would do if I got post by mistake and reply to sender that they have the incorrect email address

[Horehound]

Mine is also a Gmail account!