What to do about a numpty who does NOT know his email address?

malc_b

Hi,


So I have a gmail address. I've been getting a lot of strange emails to this account. and I've final worked out that the cause is some numpty with the same name as me who thinks my gmail address is his. I've been signed up for dating sites, hotels, and I recently had an email from a lady in South Africa with pictures, clean ones luckily as not sure how I'd explain the other sort to my wife......


This email was useful though as she had included a quote from his email where he said "my email is not john.e.doe@gmail it is just john.doe@gmail". Of course the Numpty is wrong and his email address is john.e.doe@gmail and it my email address that is john.doe@gmail! I've email him and told him this and walked him through how to use the drop downs in gmail to see what his email address is, and suggested he get in touch with someone who could help him. I even get his emails from Barclaycard saying you are near your credit limit - first time I had one of those I had a panic I can tell you! I've contacted Barclaycard and they supposedly were going to contact him and sort this out but I've just had another you are near the limit email.


Honestly this is like a Monty Python sketch! You just couldn't make this up.

twhitehousescat

change your name by deed pole ,,, sorted!

[Deleted User]

Not much you can do really

Unsubscribe from the emails as they come through

Nasqueron

I have an old email at gmail from times gone by which has the same name as a French retailer (I had it first funnily enough - I even owned the uk web address though I foolishly let it lapse and they grabbed it) and I periodically get emails from customers trying to return goods or asking for information. I tend to let them know but I only check it every few months. Not much else you can do other than unsubscribe from the junk ones and reply to people if you feel like it.

Carrot007

I say takeover any accounts they set up with resword reset and wait until they get the message. (Just close them down, nothing crazy!).

PRAISETHESUN

Interesting you should mention the bank emails - I had a similar thing happen but I was getting some poor American bloke's bank emails. You'd be surprised how hard it was to get my email removed from their systems - every time I asked to be removed, they sent an email to the registered email address for the account (mine) to confirm that it was to be removed, but then at the same time wouldn't talk to me as I wasn't the account holder! I was told about 3 times that it was removed, but then I kept getting emails.... eventually they stopped. Not sure if it was my complaining, or the guy figuring out that he wasn't getting his emails...

Unfortunately there isn't much you can do - you can unsubscribe from/block all the spam emails, and if you're feeling nice you can reply to the more important looking ones and let them know they have the incorrect email address. If you were feeling petty you could sign his actual email up to all sorts of spam out of spite as he seems to have done to you, but that's not particularly productive.