Traffic? AIBU? Google. Receiving another's emails for years.

[WhereTheSuburbsMeetUttoxeter]

I'm not entirely sure where to head here.

It has been going on for years. I receive her FB notifications, the odd email addressed to her. Now my storage is 98% full - this makes me thinks it involves both accounts.

I'll explain as easily as I can - say my Gmail is google.user @ Gmail . Com
Hers is googleuser @ Gmail. Com

She lives in America in a town that has the same name as a UK town and we both have the same name. The only difference is the . in the email.

I've looked at how to report. It doesn't seem like any scam as it's being going so long. Imagine she is mabelsmithtown and I am mabelsmith.town

I don't know where to start with getting in touch. I tried to email her and it came back to me!

Sorry, boring for a Saturday night but surely there is something amiss and wrong here.
I first noticed when getting Facebook notifications thinking, I don't know that person. But I can't find her on Facebook either.
It's highly unlikely that I've 98% filled my Gmail.

Just looking for thoughts or how someone can help me get in touch with someone?

hahahahahahahahahahah
ok carry on!

they haven't misused your email, they have no access to your email. You know it's not your facebook account, you shouldn't try to get into it. fb accounts are full of personal information that you have no reason to be accessing.

What a waste of 5 minutes. The most frustrating thread! I seem to forget how absolutely stupid some people are and then MN reminds me.

Worrying that you can vote. But explains a lot.

People are not typing the wrong email address. The emails are being sent to the wrong email address.

If it was simply a typing error it would happen to all of us, and it doesn't, it only happens to sarah.smith email addresses. It never happens to me because I have an initial in the middle, but it does happen to DH and DM, as I've said, who both have the same type of gmail email address with the . in the middle. AND it only happens with gmail accounts from what I've gathered.

And no, I stopped reading the thread because it went off at a drunken tangent.

Well stupid is relative. And just because you disagree with, or don't understand, someone else's point doesn't mean that they are stupid.

Oh good Lord.

Enchanted - the email with or without the dot is the SAME address. So getting someone elses mail is because someone mistyped their correct address (maybe missing an extra letter or number) .

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en-GB

This is Googles explanation and I think is pretty clear - have a read of this!

I've actually just remembered that DM's gmail has an initial in the middle too, she doesn't have a dot (DH's address does). So hers is the same format as mine, yet she continually gets emails for other people and I don't. And when you look in the address bar the email address is different, it's not a dot or not dot variation. I'll have to go and have a look and report back (I have access to her emails so I can help her with things).

I've read the Google explanation before and didn't think it quite fitted.

The only thing I will say is that my mum has quite a common name so mistypes are more likely. But DH doesn't, you would really need to be trying hard to send him an email!

So you are not incorrectly being delivered "someone elses mail". Someone else has mistyped/given the wrong address and sent you an email they meant for a different recipient.

The dots are completely immaterial (send an email to your mum with and without the dot and she will get both! try again with your husband.)

Google isn't misdirecting mail.

the only reason having an initial might help is it reduces the number of people who have the exact same name as you, it doesn't mean it can't happen.

you can't stop people who can't get an email address right from sending email to the wrong place. Same as with postal addresses. You don't say royal mail has bad security if they deliver post to the wrong place when you gave out the wrong address and they're following your instructions, do you?!

If the address in the bar isn't hers then someone could have set up a forward to forward email on, but it's probably spam and her address is in the bcc field so invisible. Someone would need to look at the email headers for you to see what has happened.

If by this you mean the truth has been explained several times in various ways but some people have no comprehension skills at all, AND continues to double down on being wrong then yes stupid is the word I will use. It has nothing to do with disagreeing.

Someone would need to look at the email headers for you to see what has happened

Right I've done that. Unfortunately most of the emails have been deleted so I only have one example. It's an Irish marketing email and this one does have dots.

So if my mum's email is [email protected]. it has been sent to [email protected] It does seem a little unlikely that is a mistype with so many dots and specific letters in specific places but it makes sense for this one.

She was getting invitations from someone's dentist in Dublin a few months ago but contacted them and said she wasn't in Ireland and those stopped. DH has had to get quite stroppy with the likes of Currys to get them to stop sending him invoices for other people. He also had emails about the installation of a shower.

As for the postal service - it depends if they are delivering to the address on the package or whether they give me things for number 10 when I live at number 20. The former is ok but the latter isn't.

But if it is your email it would be daft not to check it. In most cases they're won't actually be any personal information as either it was set up as a scam or if a genuine error, the person has probably not got full access as they haven't been able to verify the email address and if they have been able to put lots of personal info in they should probably be told off their error as it is their info that is insecure.

After many many years of an American gentleman constantly using my husbands email address and not stopping despite him trying every which way to contact him. We tried his bank but we didn't have security so they wouldn't pass on messages. We tried car insurance, this was the same.

My husband lost his patience in the end and amended a hotel booking using all the information coming through.

After this, the email wasn't used for years until one day.... the same gentleman started using it again.

This time it was an email confirmation of a group booking and he was able to contact the leader of the group, explain and send a message to the original sender via the group leader phoning who phoned him.

Finally we had sorted it and since then, no more crossed emails. I think after this the gentleman changed his email completely.

Hahaha have I been called stupid?

I haven't fled the scene of my own idiocy.

It came to me that night actually awakening slightly thirsty and laughing that maybe I have have nicked her email 🤣

I must go back and toss aside all derogatory comments though, for I am one, that gives not a tinkers cuss!

So there 🤣

Ah, the @RoomOfRequirement deems me to be stupid.

Nevermind eh?

This is what came to me in my sleep 🤣

Plus the poster who said PP who said I'm such a tonic 🤣 I quite like that.

I was once asked if I was a natural brunette.

Thank you @enchantedsquirrelwood I'm highly intelligent in some ways, but dim as shit in ordinary workings of life.

It has been noted before!

@HyggeTygge

Well... No shit Sherlock 🤣🤣

I hold my hands up.

Thank you to all lovely posters that I did have a laugh with. I shall see you on other threads such as:

Do Bears Shit in the Woods, and
Is the Pope Catholic.

Yours

Nobhead 😁

😁 excellent. Thanks for the fun. From all the extra posters at least you aren't the only one, and you have the excuse of drinking!

That's not the headers. The headers are technical information that show you how an email got to you. You can Google how to see them if you're interested but in this case you don't need to.

Someone has put your mum's email address in when they registered for stuff. The dots make no difference in gmail. This is exactly the same as someone incorrectly giving out your postal address. It is not a security problem any more than receiving a letter you don't want is.
Your example of a postman delivering to number 10 when it is addressed to 20 is a human error. Email delivery doesn't get human errors apart from the typing of the address. There is no security issue they should be fixing, other than perhaps requiring an intelligence test before letting people use their service.

To be fair, it's been on my mind for some years 🤣

Honestly this thread has been a great laugh, so thanks OP.

Why thank you. I'm here all week life 🤣

I still don't get the Facebook thing though. I don't know these people.

Probably bedtime, I can ruminate forever, but I'm telling you - it's not right!

I'll let Zuckerberg know, and post his reply.

Forever thick. But not. 🤷

Okay thick. Gone!

OP, you're doing it wrong, you're not supposed to have a sense of humour, you're meant to flounce off and say we're all toxic vipers and you're never coming back!

(Don't actually do that though, please! )