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fizzychicken
313 posts

Ultimate Geek


  #1889748 26-Oct-2017 10:36
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there is a woman in middle america who signs up for things with my email address. I first got that gmail address some time around the start of gmail in 2004 when dots were actually allowed so I cant even sign in without the dot as it wont recognise the username. I think this person signed up for the same address but without a dot and now I get a load of her email. She is in the market for a new apartment and takes at least a few holidays each year, not long after each hotel receives a 1 star rating with a review that doesn't relate to the place asking to be reviewed....I keep doing that in the hope that she starts to pay attention to the email address she is using. I also gave a real estate agency a poor rating for not finding me a penthouse for $100.....they didnt understand.







Dairyxox
1594 posts

Uber Geek


  #1889749 26-Oct-2017 10:39
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A young lady in London has signed up an Uber account to my gmail address, and linked her credit card to the account!!

 

Uber is not available in my city yet.


SaltyNZ
8218 posts

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  #1889753 26-Oct-2017 11:04
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Dairyxox:

 

A young lady in London has signed up an Uber account to my gmail address, and linked her credit card to the account!!

 

Uber is not available in my city yet.

 

 

 

 

But when it is ...

 

 

 

SOOOOON





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These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.




WolfmanNZ
139 posts

Master Geek


  #1889754 26-Oct-2017 11:06
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My name is a little less 'common' but I still get a heap, esp for a Miles living in Sydney - who btw has a sweet apartment a block off Bondi beach that I am considering asking the property management company to mail me a spare key for, to my 'friends' address in NZ that I am currently staying at...

 

 

 

Did reply to a few emails, including one to the NSW Police, a detective was very grateful I took the time to respond as the 'other' Miles was supposed to be giving video testimony as a witness for a trial she was involved with but the emails on how and when were coming to me...

 

 

 

Then there is the Christian/church group in Nebraska(?) that keep asking me (and sebveral others) to help out with the bible study classes each week - if took a long time for them to get the message that they had the wrong guy but eventually they stopped.


wally22
504 posts

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  #1889763 26-Oct-2017 11:37
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As an early gmail user I have had a few too. I used to try to alert people to the issue but stopped bothering after several "what do you think you are doing hacking my emails" accusations. So I just put them in the spam bin these days.

 

Its a thankless task, worse than being a sysadmin dealing solely with forgotten passwords.

 

I also have a period "." in my gmail username.


littleheaven
2130 posts

Uber Geek


  #1889800 26-Oct-2017 12:39
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Gina Salinas is still signing me up to things, and I keep unsubscribing. I haven't had any more Amazon purchase notifications since I changed her login details there. 





Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.


stinger
628 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user


  #1889810 26-Oct-2017 13:10
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littleheaven:

 

There's a woman called Gina Salinas in Virginia who keeps signing up to things using my Gmail address (which is not my name but two random words with a dot in the middle - she's not using the dot).

 

 

If your gmail address is "two.words@gmail.com" (for example), then you also have the e-mail address "twowords@gmail.com" (without the period). As others have pointed out, Gmail ignores the dot when sending e-mails to it. It also ignores anything after a plus symbol, so you also have the address "twowords+spam@gmail.com" for example.


 
 
 

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littleheaven
2130 posts

Uber Geek


  #1889814 26-Oct-2017 13:29
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Yes, this is exactly the case. I tried exhaustively to contact the lady to let her know she was using my address, but without luck. I've had it since Gmail was invite-only, and she only started using it in the last couple of years, so it's definitely my email and not hers!





Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.


geoffwnz
1587 posts

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  #1891130 27-Oct-2017 08:46
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SaltyNZ:

 

OTOH at one point I did decide to try out Snapchat (I know, right? I'm some sort of Luddite, obviously) and found my email address had already been used by someone to register an account. So I clicked the 'I forgot my password' option. The results were mundane, and I uninstalled Snapchat not long after.

 

 

Similarly, my car alarm GPS tracker has it's own SnapChat account apparently.  Was a surprise to me given it was a supposedly brand new SIM.  So either a reused number, or someone just putting in a random but valid number to the signup.





Dairyxox
1594 posts

Uber Geek


  #1891137 27-Oct-2017 08:55
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SaltyNZ:

 

Dairyxox:

 

A young lady in London has signed up an Uber account to my gmail address, and linked her credit card to the account!!

 

Uber is not available in my city yet.

 

 

 

 

But when it is ...

 

 

 

 

Oh it's happening soon...

 

NZHERALD: Uber heading to Tauranga and Hamilton


BTR

BTR
1527 posts

Uber Geek


  #1891139 27-Oct-2017 08:57
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Easier to get your own domain and have a full custom email address.

 

 

 

 


freitasm
BDFL - Memuneh
79250 posts

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  #1891150 27-Oct-2017 09:07
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Yes, yes. Preaching to the converted.




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Behodar
10501 posts

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  #1891165 27-Oct-2017 09:50
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BTR:

 

Easier to get your own domain and have a full custom email address.

 

 

And some idiot will probably still "guess" it!


sidefx
3711 posts

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  #1891181 27-Oct-2017 10:22
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Title of thread is misleading. A "sensible" email address if you want to avoid this sort of thing would be your name+random guid or similar....

 

sidefx5DC5E48A5CD541078323ABF2986D38E4@gmail.com

 

No-one's gonna accidentally use that one :P  Good luck giving it to someone over the phone or putting it on a business card though... 

 

 

 

I too have a relatively short gmail address - when I signed up it had to be a minimum of 6 chars I think so I went with my name + year of birth.  Turns out there are a lot of people who share my name, year of birth and seem to think it's their email address...    I've received everything from hotel reservation confirmations everywhere from the Romania to Hong Kong, reservations for campgrounds, logins to some US states school system so I can track my kids progress, meeting minutes for some junior league baseball team, confirmations for my jeep being booked in for a service somewhere in canada, numerous reminders that my virgin broadband bill is due in the UK, requests to confirm dates I will be arriving to inspect some factory in Malaysia, some sort of recipe for corn syrup for me to inspect, etc, etc.

 

 

 

I usually flick an email back saying I think you've got the wrong address and I've quite often got thanks in return for letting them know, at least when the original is from a real person.  Ones that are obviously sent from some backend system are the worst though - for example I've let virgin broadband and that jeep dealership know multiple times they have the wrong address but still keep getting them.

 

 

 

 





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frankv
5680 posts

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  #1891194 27-Oct-2017 10:35
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sidefx:

 

Ones that are obviously sent from some backend system are the worst though - for example I've let virgin broadband and that jeep dealership know multiple times they have the wrong address but still keep getting them.

 

 

You can easily set up Gmail rules to deal with these; set up an auto-reply-and-delete and let their robot talk to your robot. cool

 

 


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