Googlemail, schmooglemail........

Gingernutty

I don't know how to address this (excuse the pun).

I have, what I thought was a googlemail account (eg Ginger.Nutty(@)googlemail.com). And that's the account address I've been giving people.

Recently, I've been able to change to @gmail.com. The two seem to be interchangeable.

However.

There are four Ginger.Nutty women out there. Me (English), old mad bat Ginger Nutty in USA, Irish Ginger Nutty and now a New Zealand Ginger Nutty.

It's a fairly distinctive Irish name.

The mad bat has signed up for a slew of charities and gets spam about hip replacement class action lawsuits, :eek: the Irish Ginger Nutty is a fairly high falutin' businesswoman who gets all sorts of commercially sensitive business emails :eek: and the New Zealand Ginger Nutty has recently changed her power supplier:eek:.

I get emails meant for one or more of them on a regular basis.

I've replied to Irish Ginger Nutty's daughter who had emailed a Ryanair link just in time for her mother to catch a flight, unsubscribed from any number of charity mailing lists (this evening from Unicef) and had to reply to the New Zealand power company telling them that they had a 'wrong number'.

I know where American Ginger Nutty lives - it's a lovely bungalow in a cul-de-sac in Texas and have had sight of Irish and New Zealand Ginger Nuttys addresses as well.

The question I have is - how is this possible?

American Ginger Nutty has an almost identical address Gingernutty(@)gmail.com and as far as Google are concerned the two addresses Ginger.Nutty and Gingernutty are the same.

If I try to send her an email it gets sent straight to my inbox.

If I know where thay live - they could know where I live - how's that secure? Okay, they're on different continents and I'm not expecting them to land on my doorstep armed with deadly weapons but how do I go about making my address more secure?

I've gone round and round googlemail help - they aren't interested in taking individual questions and, I don't see why I should change - after all, I've got a cool named email address without a number in it. I can't contact the other Ginger Nuttys as, as I've said the emails just ping back to me.

Any suggestions?

spike7451

It could be you signed up using "Googlemail" & she signed up with "Gmail" or visa versa.Some forums I go onto,I've forgotten my account details so signed up again using Gmail then find out when I'm a new member,I've already got an account there using Googlemail...

Elle7

This has happened with me, too.

It wasn't actually to do with Gmail and Googlemail as much as I thought it would be. It was to do with Googlemail creating 'Alias' email addresses, and this made mine very similar to some US addresses - the problem didn't occur until I got the .gmail as well, but then I get a lot of her emails.

They are supposed to be working on a solution, although their first suggestion was that one of us changed our email address...something which neither of us was really willing to do!

VfM4meplse

I know it's obviously causing you more than a little irritation, would it be inflammatory to tell you that your OP is entertainingly well-written? -not that I am laughing at your expense.


The immediate thought that springs to my mind is that data protection laws must have been contravened - have a look at what the Information Commssioner has to say about it. (If you can access their accounts, it must work both ways - or rather 4 in this case - so surely mad US bat / Irish / NZ will have had the opportunity to read your emails too?). Of course bringing this to their attention may not have the result you want if you lose access to your account for whatever reason!

jayme1

@googlemail and @gmail have always been interchangeable, also mr.x@gmail.com is the same as mrx@gmail is the same as m.r.x@googlemail.com. read about it here

it is most likely that people sending email to the american and NZ people have just misspelt the email (I notice that gingernuty@gmail.com is taken, so say this is the NZ persons then the people she has given it to will have spelt it correctly therefore sending the email to you)

as for the signing up to forums (Spikes post) all websites you would sign upto will see any variation on the gmail address as a new email so will let you sign up a new account, between user@gmail.com and user@gmail.com and even u.ser@gmail.com will be a 3rd account.

Gingernutty

Thanks for all your replies - yes, the googlemail help thingy does talk about aliases and how gingernutty is the same as Ginger.Nutty and so on but every time I click "unsubscribe" on a genuine email link, the charity has gingernutty (@) gmail.com which is effectively my address - so either the other Ginger Nuttys are typing in their addresses incorrectlywhen first inputting membership/contact details in, or the people sending the emails have retyped the information incorrectly.

I know I'm getting my address right when I fill in forms and so on - how many job/employment emails are NZ/Irish/American Ginger Nutty getting if people are typing my address incorrectly?

Gingernutty

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I know it's obviously causing you more than a little irritation, would it be inflammatory to tell you that your OP is entertainingly well-written? -not that I am laughing at your expense.

Aw, shucks.....I'm blushing

Nope not offended.

Gingernutty

Aaaaaaand it's happened again. Aerlingus and Mondial Insurance have sent me flight details with name and address (but a noreply email address) for a return flight from Dublin to London.

Aerlingus even sent a 'test' mail to ensure they were sending to a working email address!

I've sent a tentative email to someone I think might know the Irish Gingernutty, so that if she does, I can send them on through her - it's a good job I'm nice.

Maybe I could send her a Christmas card this year...?

JJ_Egan

Solution One Hair Dye
Solution Two Change your Gmail account name use a new one .

As it gets darker with age you may want to drop the ginger bit .

jje

Gingernutty

There's another one!

Gingernuty of Rhode Island is trying to find crockery to make up a dining set and has signed up to a company which sells oddments of sets.

She's after white porcelain with gold trim.

After replying to the company email and receiving the reply that they would contact the lady by other means, I'm still on their mailing list........

Gingernutty

Irish Gingernutty is currently trying to help organise a wedding - I'm getting quotes for marquees and bands.

There is yet another American Gingernutty this time in Grand Rapids, Michigan whose contractor has emailed me the specs for the most beautiful walk-in wardrobe that she wants off the main bedroom.

I think I'm jealous.....