Gmail rant!

manveruppd

manveruppd

manveruppd

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Well, not a rant about Gmail, but about some of the saps who use it.

I was an early adopter and was lucky enough to register my first initial and last name as my username. No numbers, no underscores, no middle initials, nothing.

Now it seems that a bunch of transatlantic types with the same surname and first initial as mine are trying to appropriate my email address through the power of sheer wishful thinking. It all started a few years ago when I started getting emails addressed to some woman called Maria. They were mostly along the lines of "Nice to see you last weekend, you should visit us soon", or "We should arrange another playdate this week, my kids loved your daughters", or about her kids' riding lessons. I've always taken the time and trouble to reply to these emails and politely let them know that this was not Maria's email address and she had given it to them by accident, asking them to let her know, but the emails only increased in frequency as the idiot was evidently giving my address as her own to more and more of her friends.

I even got confirmation emails from Club Penguin (the Disney MMO), to which her daughters evidently tried to sign up, and which obviously requires permission from a parent/guardian. I wasn't sure whether to click on the confirmation link (and thereby masquerade as those girls' mother in Disney's eyes) or to just delete them. Finally, a few months ago, I got a flood of dozens of text messages with password reminders from Google. I wasn't asking them, so I assume it was this Maria woman trying to recover "her" password. There were literally dozens of texts, and they came at all hours of the day and night for 3 days straight. I also got password reminders sent to both my other email address and to my girlfriend's email address, which I had set as backup addresses in my Gmail profile.

Since then, I only got a few sporadic emails for Maria. I don't know if she's given up passing my address around or if people have simply given up emailing her (which is what I would do, as she obviously never responded to anyone - I did!). But then, starting a week ago, I started getting emails from HP customer support addressed to some Canadian dude called Max. Automated messages such as shipping confirmations rather than something I can reply to unfortunately, but I worry that this guy will start the whole cycle all over again, passing my email to dozens of people who will spam me with inane messages, and, much more worryingly, try to get into my account due to thinking that it really is his!

I've searched through Google's support pages exhaustively, and there doesn't seem to be any advice to cover an eventuality like this one. I'm hoping I'll soon get an email addressed to Max from a real person so I can reply and tell them what's what, but if this guy decides to sign up to a billion mailing lists then I'm screwed.

Is there any advice OCUK can give me about securing my account details? I have a 14-digit password, it's not something anyone can guess easily, but I'm sure that if the guy's convinced that I've somehow hacked his account there are ways for him to "reclaim" it. What can I do to prevent this?
 
add a second e-mail so you can easily get it back if somthing does happen... if it has that feature i only use g-mail for some game sign-ups and never my offical e-mail adress...
 
I did this with Hotmail. I had Rachel@Hotmail Megan@Hotmail etc. The accounts were unusable with sex pests, people who thought they knew them and spam after a week. Never bothered with them much after that.
 
Just make sure you've entered your mobile number and an alternative email address and verified them both incase you need to recover the password.
 
I get this *exact* same problem. Apparently I am:

1) I am a black woman looking for love on "ebonylove" sites
2) A girl starting college in Texas and who is applying for student loans and sonority clubs (I get door codes etc)
3) A girl from Texas who has graduated from medical college and is not keeping up with her student loans

I have sorted out (2) by reply-all'ing to an e-mail thread between her (but me) and her friends organising flights for a trip somewhere, begging them to tell her she's got the WRONG GOD DAMN ADDRESS. Fortunately, her mother(?) then got in touch with me explaining she forgot she added her birthdate to the end of her e-mail address (so was handing out [email protected], which is me, rather than [email protected]).

I expect this is the case with the other too.

Oh well. Maybe I'll get some lucrative access to (a) bank account details or (b) sorority pics.

EDIT: That reminds me! Some gay British couple started (obviously trying to) e-mail themselves naked photos from their iPhones, only sending them to the wrong address. Eugh. Cannot be unseen, etc.
 
I get this too. There's a group of friends or something in Virginia who think I'm their friend :confused: Yet they don't realise that this friend they see all the time is not using that email. Some of the stuff is like "Hey, had a nice time with you yesterday. Going to the cinema tomorrow with x, x and x. She will probably ask you too if you want to come".

These same people also keep tagging me on twitter (that I only registered but don't use) "Had such a cool time with 'me', we have to do it again" or "going out with 'me' tonight". And it's some 15 year old emo kids too. Meh.


Don't really know any solution to what you are asking though. I guess just fill in as much info as possible that you can prove if it was to happen. And also number and extra email so you can reclaim it fast :)
 
I get some Canadian dude's emails from time to time, one containing his real email address and physical address, I looked him up on google earth then let him know what was up, closed with "nice pool."
 
I get a lot of this on gmail, even things like citibank marketing emails (they show last 4 digits of card), at&t/iphone welcome email, gmail password reset attempts, Hilton reservation, a fair amount of marketing emails from HP etc. for things I have never signed up for.
I just unsubscribe.

How can people get their email address wrong for important things like that?
 
I had this as well, had a guy add me on MSN and he started out nicely, as we had the same name etc.

Then he asked if he could have my account, and I politely told him that he couldn't as I had lots of accounts registered to it, and it was my main MSN account. I'd had the account for about 8 years at this point.

He then got really quite nasty, at which point I reminded him that he shouldn't really put his contact details and address on the website in his MSN name/status. Website also described that he lived with parents and so I suggested his mum should probably know the sort of trash her nasty little bell end of a son came out with.

I got a couple of lines of hasty backtracking and apologising before I blocked him.

I think he was nervous of the house phone ringing for a while after that.
 
sucks eh when hotmail.co.uk became available i managed to get my name [firstname][lastname]@ within weeks it was hacked and gone forever

my wife has nikki@ now that gave for some interesting reading were talking thousands of emails a day someone actually was using that as there email address and it revieved personal emails from family & friends holiday photos
activation email passwords and allsorts


dont think wife or i have logged the account this year as it got too much in the end
 
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Skyfall said:
Buy a domain :p
Click to expand...

This - best thing I've ever done for email. I have a catch all for *@firstnamelastname.co.uk, I then sign up to websites using the middle section of the domain. If I get spammed on that one, it will then be forwarded to their support email address. All that and it is very easy for people to remember.
 
I have exactly the same problem, its a number of people with my name, at least one in the UK and one in the US.

It's not spam, its actual order confirmations, other confirmation emails (some with login details), documents, work related emails, job applications, CVs, even converations and email chains with him on etc - all for someone with my name.

Im on gmail too with - I don't know whether they have made a mistake or just type in any email similar to theirs so they don't get spam.

I too am getting sick of it as I have firstname.lastname although according to google firstnamelastname also works without the dot (I receive emails to both). it's happening so often I sometimes ponder whether they are actually able to see these emails too.
 
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Some Australian kid wanted my XBL gamertag and said he'd get me "really high on Halo 3" in return. I said no and he sent me an abusive voice message. :(
 
Never had this problem as I managed to pick something slightly obscure. I do get the occassional spam e-mail intended for another address however, as mine is obviously the closest related. Thankfully I've managed to look after my account quite well over the years, so it's not bogged down with unwanted mail.

I did get a spate of unwanted subscriptions a few years ago though; still not sure who thought it was funny to do that, but I had a talk with the likely culprits and kindly requested said sites remove me from their mailing list forever. It annoyed me enough that it happened on a couple of occassions. To have it happening regularly would drive me up the wall.

The idea of having my own domain is a good one, except I've now been using my current email for so long I'd be lost without it. Likewise, I'd be worried about losing said domain should I ever be unable to renew the address.
 
Mine is my nickname rather than my real name, so no.

I get the odd spam mail that gets through the filter but I just report it and delete.
 
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