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)

YABU. Just ignore it

Don’t be malicious and cancel/change her flights or accounts.

[quote Faithless12]Hit send too soon. They see it as a selling point:
support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en-GB[/quote]
As @DynamoKev and @Changechangychange have clearly explained it's not a question of a selling point. If you have [email protected] then no-one else can have [email protected] - they are the same email and they won't give it to someone else. If you are getting someone else's emails it's because they've mistyped a letter not because they've added or omitted a dot.

I was an early gmail adopter, and I have a staggeringly common name, so I get other people’s mail every single day. From rental agreements to doctor’s records to family photos, I get no end of mail intended for different versions of me from all over the world!

If it looks important, I’ll reply to say the sender has the wrong person, but over the years I’ve also made friends with around fifteen other namesakes, and we always have a little chat if I send on their mail directly.

I quite like it.

I received a phone call from a woman asking me why I was using her email address. She was not happy. I had bought something online and the merchant had wrongly entered my email as xxxx.co.uk (her email) instead of xxxx.com (my email). Because of this she could see my address, full name, phone number etc. As far as I know it’s now sorted and no harm was done

I also get this. Eventually one email included a mobile number so I was able to let the other person know.

Don't cancel the flight- why on earth would you do that?

I'd have called her tbh and told her she's either making a mistake or using my email and to stop or you'll cancel her flights and shopping.

If I employ a courier service who delivers to the wrong address often, or I use any other service that does the job incorrectly, I would simply use an alternative company and never employ them again.

If it's a common known fact that gmail does not guarantee that you will receive your own emails and that your emails won't go to another person because it cannot recognise an underscore or a full stop, WHY use the email? There are thousands of alternatives out there.

This actually happened to me! I had a similar amount of detail so I found her on Facebook and emailed her. Her email was one letter different to mine. She was grateful and now she knows to check when she types it in.

Why not change your email to something more complex?

@OhRene

If I employ a courier service who delivers to the wrong address often, or I use any other service that does the job incorrectly, I would simply use an alternative company and never employ them again.

If it's a common known fact that gmail does not guarantee that you will receive your own emails and that your emails won't go to another person because it cannot recognise an underscore or a full stop, WHY use the email? There are thousands of alternatives out there.

But Gmail isn't delivering to the wrong address - see (numerous) explanations above.

Think of this as the same as someone getting their mail delivered to your house because they keep putting in the wrong address.

If that happens, I put it back in the post marked with “not known at this address, please return to sender”. I suggest you do something similar and have a standard form of words confirming you are not the person they are trying to contact, you have deleted the email, you are not forwarding it on and to please update their records and not contact you again. Rinse and repeat. Don’t feel any obligation to try and get this to the right person nor do anything malicious with the information.

That's what I thought too @DynamoKev but everyone here seems to be convinced that it is how gmail works. Sending emails Willy Nilly. So why use it then?

@OhRene - that's not a common known fact, it's an apparently common misunderstanding of how Gmail distinguishes email accounts. Read clear explanations upthread (around 12:46) by DynamoKev and Changechangychange

@Esca

I was an early gmail adopter, and I have a staggeringly common name, so I get other people’s mail every single day. From rental agreements to doctor’s records to family photos, I get no end of mail intended for different versions of me from all over the world!

If it looks important, I’ll reply to say the sender has the wrong person, but over the years I’ve also made friends with around fifteen other namesakes, and we always have a little chat if I send on their mail directly.

I quite like it.

I tried this with my namesakes (politely) - unfortunately it hasn't been possible. One is a retired doctor who keeps sending me passages from the Old Testament. The rest seem to be part of Qanon and keep sending stuff about the perils of socialism and why poor people are scum.

It has actually depressed me - my name's not that common but I share it with some truly horrible people and they aren't even bright enough to understand e-mail.

@OhRene

That's what I thought too *@DynamoKev* but everyone here seems to be convinced that it is how gmail works. Sending emails Willy Nilly. So why use it then?

It doesn't "send emails Willy Nilly"

So I have had the same issue with my email address too - it might not be her fault!

I have a really common name and my old email address was a first name last name gmail account. After getting a shitty email from another woman getting some of MY emails we both complained to google. I was getting receipts for amazon and access to her account, I even got banking emails. Turned out there was ANOTHER woman with the same name!! Three of us!!

Some websites don't register the dot between names. So my email was (NC)

[email protected]

hers was [email protected].

(Third lady was [email protected])

LOADS of website apparently suffer from a lack of accurate filtering regarding dots and numbers.

We were all entering our CORRECT email address, but websites weren't filtering them correctly and were mixing us up totally randomly.

So it probably isn't her fault! Change your email address - that's the simplest solution. xx

I would cancel the flight. If she's keep making mistakes after you have messaged, only way to make her not to make mistake anymore is if she realised it's inconveniencing her by not being careful.

I keep getting similar but in my case it must be people mistyping this woman's email address which is my very boring (firstname_secondname@hotmail) . And in my case this woman obviously provides staff to care homes so I get lots of CVs and personal Information sent to my address about once a week.

I'm not interested so I reply to whoever has sent me the message saying sorry wrong email address (as I don't want these people to miss out on work shifts etc) and delete the email but I am aware there are privacy implications with the personal information I am receiving not meant for me!

I have got a friend with a "Mary Smith" type name and she gets all sorts of wrong emails intended for myriad Mary Smiths all over the world. So far as she knows no one has had stuff intended for her. She uses a second random letters and numbers email address for things like the bank

Last year she bought flights using my email

Um... perhaps change your email address?

@GreenFingersWouldBeHandy

Last year she bought flights using my email

Um... perhaps change your email address?

Eh, @GreenFingersWouldBeHandy? If someone incorrectly uses the OP's email address why should the OP change their email address?

This happens to me all the time. As far as I can deduce it’s someone who has firstname.lastname*@hotmail.co.uk and I have @hotmail*.com.

I’ve been included in group hen-do planning emails, she’s sent photocopies of her passport from a work scanner to herself, confirmation of holiday bookings, webuyanycar valuation of her car, and the latest one was about a child’s parents’ evening and clicking a link to book appointments.

If I was so inclined I know a lot about her if I wanted to do some form of fraud - full name, address, car reg, what year her child is in and where they go to school, etc.

Spookily her DP’s first name is the same as my DH so I’ve done a double take at the start of a few emails.

I’ve replied to loads in the past saying that the email address is not correct and to go back to the person and check but I still get one every week or so. They’re generally from things where it must be her that’s put the email address on incorrectly, not someone else making the mistake, and it’s been going on for years so she’s probably not going to get the hint now.

Didn't realise it's so common

I used to receive emails intended for an older lady in USA

@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

Yes OP do this!!

Thanks for the gmail link @Faithless12, that was interesting. I'm an early adopter with firstname.lastname at gmail but luckily both my names are fairly unusual so I've never had this problem.

I’m the same - early Gmail account and a fairly common name but slightly unusual spelling. Today I have pics of somebody’s new baby, I have had hen weekend and wedding invites and
most annoyingly online dating set ups- I think they really should have double verification security as it could cause tons of problems if I had a jealous husband! I am still stuck with Plenty of Fish notifications clogging up my junk folder as there is no way of actually contacting them that I have found to let them know.