I live in Canada. I have a gmail.com address which I have been using since 2006 as my primary email. Because I was an early gmail adopter, I got my choice of address without any bizzare numbers: the first two letters of my first name and then my last name. Not a really common name, but I guess there are many others Over those 10 years, and especially more recently, I have had people seemingly use my email address by accident, and I'm not talking spammers. I'm guessing that there are data entry errors, either fat fingers on a keyboard from the end user, a customer service agent entering data on behalf of a customer, or misreading handwritten email addresses on application forms.
Today - somebody applied for a Walmart US credit card and I received an email asking me to contact them and give a reference number to finish processing the application. My first and last name were on the email. So I called and told them that I hadn't applied, and it was probably just an honest mistake. They didn't hesitate in flagging the application as fraudulent, and will send me a confirmation letter by mail. So that other me, whoever they are, is probably going to be in a world of hurt, especially if the card has already been used. EDIT: today I learned in a new email that the applicant's middle initial is F.
Other examples: I start getting emails from American Express for somebody named Virginia. I had been an American Express customer years earlier, but only for a corporate credit card from an employer long ago. In the emails, the name was abbreviated Va, which took me a while to figure out why anyone would name their kid Va. One of the emails contained enough information that, had I been nefarious, could have conceivably been enough to steal this person's identity. With that info, I was able to find where this person lived and their phone number and even the name of the company they owned with a few quick 411 reverse searches. I contacted American Express several times over two years by phone and email to try and clear this up, but it wasn't until I used Twitter, before somebody actually took me seriously and fixed up the problem. No emails from them since.
Somebody uses my email to register for Plenty of Fish, a dating website (I'm happily married for 16 years). About two minutes after the email comes in, I immediately use password recovery to take control of the account. Nobody has entered any personal information or uploaded a photo. Then I promptly cancel the account before I get a pile of unwanted correspondence. I tell my wife about it and we both get a good laugh.
A dental practice in Alabama starts sending me appointment reminders for a lady and at least three other family members. None of which have names that even resemble mine in the slightest. I call the dental practice, explain I live in Canada, this must be a mistake, and the receptionist there could care less, saying it's not her problem. I look up privacy laws in Alabama, thinking I could contact their State Privacy Commissioner. Apparently there are no real privacy laws in Alabama. Funny enough, my wife works in dental and if this were to happen to her practice in this province, there would be big trouble. I can't use password recovery trickery to take control of this account because it asks an additional verification question (birthdate). Eventually I figure out I can contact the third party which generates the reminder emails on behalf of the dental practice, and they put an immediate stop to it. The emails disclosed the patients' cell phone number...
Somebody uses my email to register for a Playstation account on Christmas Day. I don't own a Playstation or any Sony products. I also use password recovery to immediately take control of the account, but I can't close it. I have to harass Sony for a couple of weeks before I speak to somebody who actually cares and ensures I won't get any more email from them. Hopefully the person who's account that was didn't have a wrecked Christmas.
Another time, somebody registers for a cell phone tracking service. I could have had all sorts of fun with this one. I could remotely lock or wipe their phone. Fortunately the registrant realizes their error quickly and deletes their phone from the account right away.
These are the cases I remember specifically. But there have been others: party invitations, job posting notifications, and the like. Thankfully no porn related stuff.
I post this here in the Security Forum to say: All your best efforts to secure your online life could be thwarted with one slip of a finger.
A dental practice in Alabama starts sending me appointment reminders for a lady and at least three other family members. None of which have names that even resemble mine in the slightest. I call the dental practice, explain I live in Canada, this must be a mistake, and the receptionist there could care less, saying it's not her problem. I look up privacy laws in Alabama, thinking I could contact their State Privacy Commissioner. Apparently there are no real privacy laws in Alabama.
There may not be in Alabama at the state level.
However, there certainly ARE laws at the US Federal level and I refer to HIPAA.
That dentist could easily be fined thousands of dollars.
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As for e-mail in general, if I were Joe Blake, I would NOT use joeblake@gmail as an address.
Because of the exact problems you describe.
Now, to use joeblakeXXX@gmail where XXX are three numbers, is fine as long as they are random.
At the other end of the scale, I sometimes see people using their name combined with BIRTH YEAR or even name combined with BIRTH DATE as their e-mail address, which is quite stupid.
i have this problem with a few generic named gmail accounts i got a dozen years ago when they first started. there are at least 2 people who regularly have their retail purchase and business correspondence sent to me because we have the same real first and last name in real life, but they neglected to use their variation of it.
for example, i'm johndoe while they may be johnsdoe and senders often neglects to put the s in the address. i had some fun recently with a few law firms that kept sending johnsdoe contract pdf files for him to review. i replied like; "if you can't get an email address right, how can i trust you to get anything else done right".
First...thank you for not only posting but also for taking the time to try and fix things--I realize that it benefits you but still, you could basically just ignore most of them.
I have a friend who is Australian who has had a much simpler but somewhat similar situation occur with just ONE person who apparently is one of the most annoyingly stupid people on the planet because even though my friend has contacted her about the problem (and this person's friends because of email cc'ing she's got those addy's too and the friends can't get her to fix the problem), my friend still gets emails that should go to this other person.
Personally, I love my very old numeric compuserve email address and prefer that to any alpha-based addresses I have. I have never liked having an email address that has my name in in but I have 2 gmail addy's that do and I have been contemplating deleting the accounts but haven't gotten around to it yet.
Gmail has issues where "." and "+" in the email is ignored.
So hikingfan+friends@gmail.com, hikingfan+mailinglists@gmail.com, hiking.fan@gmail.com, and hi.kin.g.fan@gmail.com will all be delivered to hikingfan@gmail.com
One gmail account I have is first.last@gmail.com and some one else with the same name mistakenly gives out firstlast@gmail.com occasionally as their email address, which is delivered to me.
I have had similar email address problems where someone would use my ISP email address for registering with web sites, retail stores, and credit card accounts. I have also corrected those problems by using "forgot password" features with web sites. In several cases I called the person using my email address (because the information I received from their various accounts provided me with the name, address, and phone number). In a few cases, I had to close the accounts that were emailing me because even after I contacted the individual, nothing was done.
Several years ago, I also had a very annoying problem of people calling my toll free number (a number I had been using for several years prior to that) while trying to reach a regional hospital in Florida. It took over a year before I finally found out that the hospital had published my toll free number (a simple one digit difference in the phone number) in a brochure that they had distributed throughout the southeast via kiosks in Interstate rest areas and tourist information centers. Contacting the hospital did not produce any positive results -- they absolutely refused to recall and republish the brochure (and it probably would not have made much difference in the short term considering the tens (perhaps hundreds) of thousands that were already in the hands of the general public). Quite frequently the calls were from very emotional/irate individuals who would insist on being transferred to a supervisor so that they could officially register a complaint (and also those who would threaten to call a local DA or the FCC or FBI to report that I was hijacking the hospital's phone line). I finally had to disconnect that toll free number in order to stop the 24/7 phone calls (sometimes hundreds a day) and I had to answer calls to that number because I had paying customers who used it (customers I had to inconvenience by providing a new phone number).
Any phone number will do. We used to get confidential information from some kind of doctor's service on our fax, including all record. I called the idiots about 5 times, said to fix the phone number and they never did. After that, the faxes went in the shredder. Some poor patient must have lost out.
Same here. My e-mail address has nothing to do with my real name. Any company that signs me up for e-mail mailings without doing an e-mail verification gets marked as spam. Any accounts I can close I close.
Personal or professional e-mails I reply back to the sender that they should verify the e-mail address for the person that they are sending to my address. I also have to same e-mail address from Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, and I'm sure a few more.
If I were you I'd go to my Google account settings and choose "Device activity & notifications" and make sure you recognize all the devices accessing your account.
I have almost exact issue with walmart. I logged in reset the password and canceled the transaction on a purchase. Then I send an email to walmart telling them they should contact the guy and have him correct his account. NOTHING HAPPENED. Still get stuff for the guy.
My parents' phone number that they'd had for decades was the same except for two transposed digits as a fast food chicken place that opened up in town. They were constantly getting calls for take-out orders.
Dad called the place to explain the situation to a manager, who got snotty with him and said they wouldn't change it and there was nothing he could do to stop them from using the number.
They ended up changing their number, though, when dad started telling callers to come right over to get their order.
You should never use your real name in a email address unless your in a corp that requires it or the account is set up as part of a hiring process or your in college they always use first and middle init and last name. The above mostly laughable example is one reason other is privacy. I was one of the first public users of gmail and used most of my invites for my own personal use to lock down lots of account names and later allot of gvoice numbers some where in the 50 or 60 range lol
But as for email addys in general it don't matter how random a account name you use you will always at some point get these sorts of emails by error just how it is.
As for the OPs fears about the person getting in all sorts of trouble not likely worst case that credit card gets canceled and really probably will be cancled as you would be able to take it over request a new one etc in their name sent to you all sorts of bad stuff. Most likely you saved this guy some trouble.
My parents' phone number that they'd had for decades was the same except for two transposed digits as a fast food chicken place that opened up in town. They were constantly getting calls for take-out orders.
Dad called the place to explain the situation to a manager, who got snotty with him and said they wouldn't change it and there was nothing he could do to stop them from using the number.
They ended up changing their number, though, when dad started telling callers to come right over to get their order.
I can sort of see the restaurant's point, no matter which phone number they use someone will misdial it.
We had a similar situation that went on for a few years until the particular restaurant went out of business.
We had a similar situation that went on for a few years until the particular restaurant went out of business.
I worked for a web hosting company who had a phone number that was 1 digit different from a local hospital; not quite daily, but at least weekly, someone inevitably would get the call "Hello Webhosting Company" 'um yes can i speak to some doctor' "no, you got the wrong company, we serve websites on the internet, you need ######7 you dialed ######4
Everyone in the office had that hospital's number Postit'd to their monitors...
(I should mention this was a 24/7 NOC although the hospital was more of a doctors office and not anything emergency; so we were always there, and more than willing to help the people reach the (some sort of specialist) they needed to talk to)
Out internal IT HelpDesk phone number is 1 digit off from the local non-emergency police line. At least weekly, and mostly on the weekend, we'll get messages (our HelpDesk is only 8 - 5) for the police to come assist with an illegally parked car, noise, etc.
You should never use your real name in a email address unless your in a corp that requires it or the account is set up as part of a hiring process or your in college they always use first and middle init and last name.
I have to disagree. I have another Gmail account when I look for work that is my real name. Sweetbabycakes (at) email.com isn't an e-mail address should be using when you look for a job.
Then again my real name is unique, I'm the only one in the world with it. My real name is also odd enough that you're not going to be randomly guessing it. A lot of people would have a hard time getting their real name for their e-mail address, unless the service was brand new.
No you use a nick name you create not some corny ass dating website type email. No one gives a crap about your email address only that it is real. What i find is even when emailing fairly high paying clients back and forth for contract related stuffs i get comments on my email address wanting to know how i came up with it. A good email address that a employer will remember will get you remembered. This will possibly lead to getting a interview.
There are always going to be people that fat-finger an email or phone number, but when a company doesn't proofread it's printed material that should be actionable, especially if they've been notified and refuse to fix it. Give them a chance and if that doesn't get action go for public shaming with the local consumer reporter or social media.
I used to have a phone number one digit off from a local senior center. Most the calls came in during the day and ended up in VM. Usually I would ignore them. There was one that caught my attention of a lady looking for a place to take her husband one day a week. That one I did call back and gave her the correct number to call. No way I wanted some guy dropped at my doorstep!
Now that I have VoIP with a robust rule set available, I send repeat offenders back to their own number or dial-a-prayer depending upon my mood.
Ha, I have made a few post on this site about this issue. I have a few throw away gmail accounts but have one that is my Firstname.lastname@gmail.com when the beta first open from google. I have had several people signup for things under my account. One in Texas that signed up for several things that led me to get enough of her information to call her and tell her to stop. A couple in California that I had also gotten enough information to call them and tell them to stop. I can go on and on for things that i am signed up for now. Facebook accounts, Twitter, etc. Best one was a college professor put my emali down as his so that people in his Masters program could send him their work. the college IT staff was laughing their asses off when I explain to them the students may not be so happy.
Most of the times its a mistake and easy to fix. The lady in Texas is a dumb ass though and keeps doing so(dentist, bible study, home depot, and lowes) to the point where I am trying to figure out the next step to get her to stop. Oh and if any wonders....her name is so far different from mine that there is no way it could be an accident
What i find is even when emailing fairly high paying clients back and forth for contract related stuffs i get comments on my email address wanting to know how i came up with it. A good email address that a employer will remember will get you remembered. This will possibly lead to getting a interview.
I'm sure you have high paying clients lined up out your door eh? A good number asking about your amazing email and how you did it too? I am beginning to think 90% of what you say is complete nonsense.
Re: When somebody uses your email address by mistake
It is called most do not give 2 craps about what a email addy is they just need one to send you info etc. And i have had a few ask about it because it is different. I can get that single address on pretty much any email service i find.
And do you ever get tired of failing so badly at trolling me itguy? Yeh i know who you are your a easy one to spot.
I had the same thing happen with my email, but thankfully only once. I got what looked like someone's medical information. Looking back through the email thread, I quickly spotted the mistake -- the intended address was earlier in the thread, and it was one character different from mine. I replied back to let the sender know of his mistake, and he thanked me for it and apparently took care of it, because I never heard from him again.
I also had it happen with an old phone number. When I still had my first apartment, my number was one digit off from the local rape crisis center. Every so often, I'd get a call from some hysterical woman.
Hi DMWCincy, If you already have dealings with a lawyer, ask them to write a letter to the idiot in Texas telling her to stop using your Email address. Have the lawyer also mention a possible future injunction for harassment if she persists.
I think you could legitimately respond to those emails stating that you never signed up and ask the account to be closed. Might impact her credence when she tries to re-establish the account.
A dental practice in Alabama starts sending me appointment reminders for a lady and at least three other family members. None of which have names that even resemble mine in the slightest. I call the dental practice, explain I live in Canada, this must be a mistake, and the receptionist there could care less, saying it's not her problem.
I used to have a fax hooked up to my previous number. About once a month, I'd get a fax from a medical or legal professional somewhere in the US. I suspect the number was similar to some insurance company's fax number.
A Minneapolis law firm was a particularly egregious offender. After they sent me several faxes full of things like social security numbers and medical reports, I called up the lawyer and told him he just sent his clients' confidential information to some random Canadian.
My parents' phone number that they'd had for decades was the same except for two transposed digits as a fast food chicken place that opened up in town. They were constantly getting calls for take-out orders.
Dad called the place to explain the situation to a manager, who got snotty with him and said they wouldn't change it and there was nothing he could do to stop them from using the number.
They ended up changing their number, though, when dad started telling callers to come right over to get their order.
Did they also have a statement at the bottom of the message saying if you're not the intended recipient you should not read the message and delete all copies? Sending the message back (email or fax) is my normal approach. If they don't get the hint then I either block their messages or escalate within their company.
My parents' phone number that they'd had for decades was the same except for two transposed digits as a fast food chicken place that opened up in town. They were constantly getting calls for take-out orders.
Dad called the place to explain the situation to a manager, who got snotty with him and said they wouldn't change it and there was nothing he could do to stop them from using the number.
They ended up changing their number, though, when dad started telling callers to come right over to get their order.
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