WWYD- Getting someone elses emails? (LIGHTHEARTED!!!!)

[WiddlinDiddlin]

I've been recieving someone elses emails for the better part of twenty years now.

Her email address is nameinitialsurname, and mine is just namesurname. The issue is our first names and her middle initial are such that its easy, so so easy to miss that initial.

Imagine JulieJJohnson or SophieESmith...

Most stuff I can ignore happily, updates on her car warranty, invites to church pot lucks. Some of it I nosey at, the frequent and detailed emails from her brother as he was on his missionary years (they are Mormons) overseas were actually interesting (if you're a nosey fucker as I am).

I have tried to contact her (I have found her on FB, she has ignored my message, I friend requested her so she'd be more likely to see my message, that was ignored too).

I have actually emailed back and forth with her DF.. he seems a nice guy.

I have replied to many emails - for example when I was sent the passwords and account details for the church bank account, and when I was sent sensitive information about her daughters school classes - to correct the error.

But the error continues to occur, either because she doesn't make it clear to people to include the initial in her email address or she allows people to write it out themselves and they mess up.

Yesterday I had to cancel a zoom meeting for an outpatient hospital appointment, there was no way to contact the sender (that I could find) to let them know I wasn't the right person, and that she would be unable to join the zoom. I could have fwd'd it to her actually... damn, didn't think of that.

Tonight I've just replied to a multi-person email chain (14 members of her family) discussing selling some personal items, to point out they or at least one of them, as her email address wrong ... and can they correct it!

I know too much about this other ladies life, and I feel a growing sense of responsibility about this... that I really do not want! It's been twenty fecking years!!!

What would you do?

DP suggested I should just join in and consider them family and see how long before someone bloody notices!

I've had this too with the same person for years and feel like I know her really well. I have replied and told people several times but when the same person emails me then, I just delete it.

I am guilty of this! DB started work in a global company and only uses a work email address not a personal email address (far too busy and important to check two email inboxes apparently 🙄) His first name is able to be shortened but in our family he is known by his longer first name (think David and Dave). I sent a voucher for his birthday to his work email but he uses the shortened first name as his work email address, luckily his American colleague David forwarded it to him. Trouble is my email defaults/remembers American David so I always have to double check now!

Too late, you're part of the family now! Just join in.

@WiddlinDiddlin hey will they remember you in their wills????

I’ve had this. The person they should have gone to had the same Christian name, and surname, my surname is unusual in the Uk but not in theUS and the sender of the emails was a US realtor and the recipient was their PA I think as the emails were usually instructions to arrange viewings and such. I kept replying g that they had the wrong person but the emails kept coming for some time.

My brother couldn't get the email address he wanted so went with a slight misspelling and dropped the e at the end. My dear old mum cannot get this right and has been emailing very long involved family missives to the correct spelling of his name for years.

He politely emailed her back many times to explain he is not her son. She still manages to get it wrong. They've developed a friendship. We call him the un-son and it's a miracle he hasn't been invited for Xmas dinner.

Someone used my gmail address on a gaming site. I tried several times to get the site to stop emailing me all his/her considerable progress.

Eventually I got so fed up with the spam from them that I requested a lost pass word reset link which of course came to me. I then deleted his account which solved the problem nicely

My email is surname.name@gmail, the past year I have been getting emails addressed to surnamename@gmail. I clicked on the email and the dot was missing. Gmail does ignore dots, the sender typed the correct address but it just gets delivered to me.

I had this with a lady who was active in a homeowners' association in Florida. I kept getting emails about dog poo.

No, the sender typed the incorrect address, because they can’t have surname.name if you have surnamename. In gmail they’re the same address.

I have this too! My gmail is my first name . surname. Yet I get emails for 2 other women who have my name too. Their email addresses do not have a dot separating their first and last name.
One is in the UK and one in the States. I live in another country.
The last one I got for the 'other me' in the UK was from a bloke called Gordon confirming our rendezvous outside Battersea Power Station. Ending the email with 2 kisses.
The USA me bought lingerie (I got the emailed shop receipt) and then stayed in a hotel (I got a hotel email confirmation).
I kind of live vicariously through these two same name sharers, and I often wonder if they ever receive emails meant for me.
If so they are probably greatly disappointed and bored 🤣

exactly this!

if you have [email protected] you also have n.am.e.s.mith name.smith na.m.e.smith and any other dot combo. The senders just have completely the wrong email address, as emma.smith doesn't exist as a separate email if you have emmasmith

There is a problem with gmail dots though (not OP's issue here).

I have an address that is in the format [email protected], and frequently get emails that have been sent (and i have checked address) to someone else at [email protected].

Gmail says this shouldn't happen, but it definitely does.

Yes, they’ve been sent to that address, because that is also your address.

The sender has typed the wrong email address.

I feel like I’m banging my head against a brick wall here.

well if you wanted to do something about it you could set that account to forward to her email address and then change your email address. Or you could block the old email address if you don't want her seeing your emails.

Alternatively I would do nothing about her emails that you receive. Eventually the carnage that would cause in her life would hopefully cause her to do something about it.

The same thing happened with me when I moved and someone refused to redirect their post. Forwarding it to them was just enabling their laziness or dis-incentivising them to actually do something.

This is exactly my situation.
For example (obvs false name)
Mine is [email protected]
Yet I get emails for [email protected]
There are also two [email protected]
One in the UK and one in the states.

They typed the correct address for you, but not correct for the other person, because that address belongs to you and no-one else could have registered it.

When your email address is surname.firstname, it is also surnamefirstname without the dot. It is also s.u.r.n.a.m.e.f.i.r.s.tname and any other variation of dots. As long as the same letters are in the same order, adding or removing dots is irrelevant for gmail. (Not for other email providers).

In all these cases it's people either giving out the wrong address or people typing it in incorrectly.
There would not be a case where gmail let them register an email address without dots but then sent any with dots to someone else.

There will not be two people separately registered with the same gmail address (string of letters when you ignore any dots).

People are typing in the wrong address to the one they meant to.

Google doesn't decide to send some to you and some to the other kylie!

Your email address lets any of the following go to you, and to you only:
kylieminogue
kylie.minogue
kyl.ie.m.ino.gue
k.y.l.i.e.m.inogue

It will not send the following to you:
kylieeminogue
kyliemminogue
kylimeinogue
kylieminugoe

Because they are different strings of letters.

No, Google specifically says this DOES happen.

Here is the same link again explaining it
https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en-GB

You’re talking to deaf ears I’m afraid. I explain this every time one of these threads come up (and just get accused of being rude 😂) but it never seems to sink in.

The simple explanation is the correct one - the sender typed in the wrong address. There’s no other reason.

I have this as well with one other women and have replied to tell people to update their records especially when they are sharing confidential stuff about kids but still happens every now and then. I have given up and just delete now - I have given plenty of chances

Invite the whole family to your place (hers) for a slap up dinner this weekend!!

I have offered to attend some of the pot luck church picnics, but I fear my signature massive salad would not make the trip from the Midlands of the UK to Ohio all that successfully.

The Daddy of the family has emailed back apologising, again, for the inadequacies of certain family members when it comes to spelling email addresses and auto-fills. I have jokingly suggested one of them could just adopt me at this point.

Sorry for triggering the whole dots/not dots/'gmail can give your email address to someone else myth' malarkey again. Not my intention, though it is funny how much this mystifies people!

Amused at how many people have this issue though!

I have exactly the same thing but it's even worse than just getting wrong emails. The lady is an artist and paints pictures of naked women to empower them. They send her photos of themselves naked with long stories of their life tragedies....but they sometimes send them to me by mistake. These are usually vulnerable older women with not perfect figures. I nearly spit my coffee out first time I got one.
I am in touch with the lady. I used to forward emails on to her. I don't now as I've told her to get a business email so this doesn't happen but she hasn't, so I'm not going out of my way for her now. I just delete all emails for her.
I keep getting payments sent to my PayPal as well. It's a good job I'm honest and return them. I don't reply to the naked women as I wouldn't want them to worry about it.
I have a couple of other people that keep using my email as well...I suspect it is similar. I just ignore unless it looks like something important. I was getting communication about a house purchase once from a solicitor so I replied to them