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)

I cause no end of trouble with mine - I'm [email protected]; Essential.Hummus gets my mail occasionally.

@EssentialHummus - you literally have the word 'dot' within your email address? That's asking for trouble! (I presume that's why you are ducking ).

You have my sympathies OP.

I registered a domain 20+ years ago and have a catch-all email account; all emails addressed to anyname@mydomainname are forwarded to my personal email account.

Unfortunately my domain name is only one letter different to a major company that sells deodorant. I get a large number of emails complaining about faulty cannisters. I always go back to the sender to explain they've used the wrong email address and how to correct it.

Sometimes I get a reply to say thank you, which I don't expect and is very nice. What I don't appreciate is when the sender replies and has a go at me for THEIR mistake!!

@goldierocks

You have my sympathies OP.

I registered a domain 20+ years ago and have a catch-all email account; all emails addressed to anyname@mydomainname are forwarded to my personal email account.

Unfortunately my domain name is only one letter different to a major company that sells deodorant. I get a large number of emails complaining about faulty cannisters. I always go back to the sender to explain they've used the wrong email address and how to correct it.

Sometimes I get a reply to say thank you, which I don't expect and is very nice. What I don't appreciate is when the sender replies and has a go at me for THEIR mistake!!

That reminds of this chap - called John Lewis -

twitter.com/johnlewis/with_replies

dad - yup. Tbf it doesn't go wrong very often, I just have an extra 30 seconds of explaining if I'm spelling out my email address over the phone. I've often wanted to write to Essential.Hummus to say hello and perhaps apologise, but I've not done it yet.

@Geriatric1234

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

Again - [email protected] and [email protected] are not two different email addresses so one of the three of you is mistaken about their actual e-mail address.

Also Change your email address - that's the simplest solution. xx

It really isn't, so many websites use email address for signing up - and so many people I know have my correct e-mail address- changing would be a huge pain in the backside.

Ah the one time in my life I'm grateful for a weird, extremely long name.

Can you work out what her email should be and set up auto forward &!delete for the messages that aren't yours?

It doesn't really matter if it's a gmail specific problem, an auto fill cock up or someone can't type, as long as nothing is being sent from OPs email address then I would just delete them all as they come in and block the more persistent ones - just like we do with spam.

@InaccurateDream

Yes, perhaps I'll cancel the cheque/write to her. But I was trying free routes first as I don't particularly want to spend money on overseas postage.

Just log into her Walmart account. You'll get the password reset details to that email and then change the password. Double lock it down so she will never be able to access it again. Do that for fox nation too.

I get this too - it is so annoying. I've had both the .co.uk and .com versions of my domain for over 30 years now but a Canadian company registered the .ca version.

Unfortunately their clients always assume it's the .com so I get pictures etc of mouldy timber and all their complaints. Also cvs for their new hires and once the full financial details of one of the senior directors who was applying for a mortgage.

As for my gmail account - I've had that forever too and it's always being used to sign up for stuff. I use the forgotten password option and get a reset emailed - comes to me of course! I just change the password now and lock them permanently out of their own account!

I suspect her email is one dot or dash different to yours. Someone has my same name but an underscore between first and last name, I've had various correspondence including the confirmation of their wedding ceremony. It wasn't the person who was using the wrong email, it was others writing down the email wrong eg booking over the phone

I've been at work so sorry for no replies

1. it's not gmail. It's an email linked to a service that I can't change.

2. I currently have 8,000 unread emails which you may think is a lot and so why do a few more matter? But every so often I mark them all as read and start unsubscribing to loads of things in a futile attempt to reach inbox zero. What's annoying is when there's a whole batch you can't unsubscribe to or that aren't even for you. GDPR is EU-based law and American sites often don't give a damn. For example I can't even access Fox Nation to unsubscribe and an unsubscribe option isn't in the emails I have either. So it's sort of a small problem but it's also an annoying one. Yes, I can just delete. But I'd prefer to get rid for good.

3. I'm sure it's an accident of some sort, but it's not just an accident after all this time, it's also laziness or not thinking things through. I don't like the idea of having someone's flight or financial info in my inbox - what if someone defrauded her and someone realised I have access to her info (unlikely, I know). I spent ages late last year trying to track her down. I don't get why she's not bothered about all the missing confirmations and receipts! I'm honestly (sure, yeah!) would prefer to be helpful, I just haven't been able to resolve this one. I've just tried to sign up to a facebook group in her area. Maybe that will help.

4. ok, it could be other people getting it wrong and not her. This would be more likely to be the case if it was people sending her email, but most of them are situations where she has bought something online or entered an email into a quote generator and she will have done it.

5. I have a .com address for this site so it's not a co.uk/com mix up. Could be something to do with fullstops or middle initial or DOB at the end. Which leads me back to 3).

6. I'm not a monster. But some days I'm tetchier than others.

7. I have had some successes - Walmart closed the account in my name down (just checked). This airline last year said they closed the account but they clearly didn't take away the opportunity to reopen it.

8. I haven't written to her yet. I have some ebay post to send later so maybe I'll look up US postal rates at the same time.

9. I've forgotten what was going to go here.

10. The end

DH has this all the time with a man in the US.

He's had a lot of fun with it over the years... marked essays and sent them back with helpful comments, attended virtual job interviews this chap was sent (didn't get the job... to my relief), got to know a whole selection of hairdressers and personal trainers.

One day we hope he will learn his own email address.

@Geriatric1234
[email protected] and [email protected] are actually both the same address with gmail. You can add dots wherever you want so [email protected] would also work. You can also have [email protected]. It's very handy for having multiple accounts or filtering.

It's not the email provider's fault, it's people who can't spell their own email address.

Yanbu there are times when it gets really annoying. I actually had someone email me to say they'd used my address and then complain because I'd marked it as spam and unsubscribed.

I'm sure it's an accident of some sort, but it's not just an accident after all this time, it's also laziness or not thinking things through…I don't get why she's not bothered about all the missing confirmations and receipts!
This is what I don't get. No one would miss promotional emails from shops etc, but if you booked a ticket and never got a confirmation...? So many things are e-ticketed now, I have to wonder how this person gets into half the things she's booked on your address.
This is what makes me wonder if it's a scam.

My mum would do this... As in be the person who doesn't know her email addrwss. She just assumed that firstname.lastname@isp was how emails worked 😂 so whenever she made herself accounts or anything she was using different versions of that I. E. Different isp's depending on what one she remembered.

Once we established that email didn't work like that things went slightly smoother. She still sometimes does it though because she knows her friend set her up a Hotmail account many years ago (that she locked herself out of a few years back) and occasionally will use the first bit of that email address and just add @gmail.com on the end because "that's how it works" 😂

@Forgottenyeti I think we are kinda saying the same thing, but for clarity no-one in my example was spelling their email address incorrectly. -T
There were 2 other people with the same name as me. We had all registered gmail addresses. One had a dot and one had a number (these were not counted as the same address by gmail). We were all spelling our email address correctly. Some online shops/services had software that confused them - so nope, not gmail’s fault I agree. Neither were any of us using the wrong email address spelling.

I don’t think op is BU at all - I agree it’s really annoying. I got sent someone else’s baby pictures once ;-D

And when I first had it happen I deleted a couple of accounts as I assumed someone was just typing lazily or hacking me. But they weren’t. It was just some online forms literally couldn’t distinguish the addresses clearly. No idea whose fault it is, but it wasn’t any of the ‘Samantha smiths’.

This happens to my DH with his email. He's had alsorts off this guy! His detailed house extension plans was the most unusual! He's been getting this guys stuff for years!! But all he's been able to deduce is that he lives down south somewhere and we are pretty sure he's having an affair he just ignores it mostly!

I get this all the time. I've unsubscribed from Snapchat at least four times in the past 3 weeks. DH has a fairly unisex name (eg Alex) and for a while he received email intended a 20-something woman in the US. All fine, he emailed back and explained the mix up, it mostly stopped. Until one day, the woman's boyfriend emailed her a dick pic. Except it went to DH. He replied to let him know he'd accidentally sent this billet doux to a hairy Scotsman

Can you maybe send her a card from a US version of moonpig or something similar - may be cheaper and a lot less of a faff than sending a letter to the US.

I've unsubscribed from Snapchat at least four times in the past 3 weeks.
If you unsubscribe then they can resubscribe. Your best bet is to change the password and lock them out.

Sometimes I get a reply to say thank you, which I don't expect and is very nice. What I don't appreciate is when the sender replies and has a go at me for THEIR mistake!!
That's like someone phoning a wrong number and complaining that the other person answered the phone!

A letter to the US is a couple of quid. Just write a letter! Hope you get sorted.

@sueelleker

Sometimes I get a reply to say thank you, which I don't expect and is very nice. What I don't appreciate is when the sender replies and has a go at me for THEIR mistake!! That's like someone phoning a wrong number and complaining that the other person answered the phone!

Haha - yes this!

I did forward the full financial details and mortgage offer to its intended destination with a message that he might like to complain about a data breach to his mortgage company.

Next thing I knew I was being threatened with legal action by the mortgage company for receiving the email in the first place!

I ignored them.