Someone is using my email address

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Someone started trying to use my nicknamed gmail account thinking they were forwarding letters to a parent/partner with I'm assuming a similar initial/name as the surname matches. Started off with harmless emails, the odd note or forwarded letter and nothing which could identify them. Today they sent a full letter with identifiable information, full address, DOB, names, the lot. I'm not sure if I should reply that they should be more careful or ignore and delete like I did with the rest. Should I leave a CD on their doorstep?
 
Just recently I have received some Zoom invitations to my gmail and emailed documents about town planning and construction works for a town in Utah, interesting reads for sure.
 
I own a 3 letter domain with a catch-all email address set up on it and I keep receiving emails with quite privileged information in meant for a health insurance company called WPA.
 
Malevolence said:
I use firstname.lastname@gmail but I guess I'm lucky as not many will have my name. A quick check, and I can only find a site that shows you the number of people with the same name as you in the US, shows this.

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I'm also in the 1 or fewer club. However there are apparently 819 people with my surname there. Probably a lot more in Italy.
 
Yeah, there are apparently 220 people with my name, even though it's pretty unusual. Seem to be quite a few numptys using the wrong email address though :/ I've had quite a few motor insurance quotes through, one of them is quite involved in church activities, and I've had a few initiations to family get-togethers, and family photos... nothing juicy though :( :p
 
englishpremier said:
To gmail me@gmail is the same as m.e@gmail so forgetting to put a full stop or not doesn't make any difference. This seems to happen all the time with gmail though.

Mine gets used without the full stop. I just have everything sent to spam. It's not like anyone has access to the account.
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Does the other guy also get a copy of the emails or just yourself?

By chance does he get a copy of all of yours?
 
I don't see how anyone else could get a copy.

I think it's more a case of some idiot or multiple idiots putting in the wrong address. They probably then wonder why they don't get a reply.
 
When I signed up for gmail it was when you needed an invite and I was able to get <firstname initial><fairly common surname>@gmail.com. I now get daily emails from different people with the same firstname initial and surname, often even banking details. I was tempted to change a hotel reservation once when I was getting quite a few, but I thought that would be a bit too mean.
 
mattyg said:
Is this a gmail or similar account. Maybe he's forgotten to put a full stop between his names... you may be able to track him down if you look at how he may have put your email by accident

At the very least though I'd change my password
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This is wrong, as per the other replies gmail ignores the dots, it's sometimes people making the same mistake you have in thinking they're relevant and ignoring some other part of the e-mail... for example someone registered a firstname.lastname account by making a typo and omitting the first letter of the first name, in the past when I've replied to someone to highlight they have the wrong address they then try again without the dot. (in some cases they're even replying to an e-mail that person sent and they manually "correct" the address). Ditto to people who put a number at the end.

I'd not change password over this either, that's pointless as you can easily check in gmail whether someone has accessed your account, most likely they haven't and have simply used the wrong address on a form etc..
 
I was about to post the same question. How do I stop these emails coming to me on my gmail account.
My email is my first initial with my last name @gmail.com.
It’s annoying that I get my first initial with a dot then last name emails coming through on my gmail app on my iPhone etc.

Any idea how I stop this, fed up of having to mark them spam or block them etc.
 
dowie said:
This is wrong, as per the other replies gmail ignores the dots, it's sometimes people making the same mistake you have in thinking they're relevant and ignoring some other part of the e-mail... for example someone registered a firstname.lastname account by making a typo and omitting the first letter of the first name, in the past when I've replied to someone to highlight they have the wrong address they then try again without the dot. (in some cases they're even replying to an e-mail that person sent and they manually "correct" the address). Ditto to people who put a number at the end.

I'd not change password over this either, that's pointless as you can easily check in gmail whether someone has accessed your account, most likely they haven't and have simply used the wrong address on a form etc..
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I asked a question. How was it wrong?
 
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