We get other peoples emails

peter_the_piper

My wife keeps getting other peoples emails. For example her name is Fredahms@xxx.com but keeps receiving Freda.hms@xxx.com. Not really important but they seem to include American Express emails. Other than changing the email name is there any way to stop this?

droopsnoot

If this is gmail, there is no difference between "fredahms" and "freda.hms", or "freda_hms" or even "f_r_e.d_a.h.m.s" - punctuation is ignored. It's handy for tracking who is selling your emails - add a different punctuation character every time you sign up for something and you can see where it gets.

I sometimes get confirmation emails to my gmail account - those emails you get when you've signed up for something and the site wants to check you've used a valid email address. I tend to ignore them - in that situation the user will notice they didn't get an email and sort it out.

peter_the_piper

Thanks very much, any other time even a space is a problem. She'll just have to ignore it or contact AE to tell them that their customers mails are going to us and not them, I hope they have an sms for themof we will just get those mails as well.

Neil_Jones

peter_the_piper said:

Thanks very much, any other time even a space is a problem. She'll just have to ignore it or contact AE to tell them that their customers mails are going to us and not them, I hope they have an sms for themof we will just get those mails as well.

You can't have a space in an email address, that's why you see things like bedrock_library and fred.flintstone@bedrock.net.

If somebody else has put the wrong email address in for their services, the easiest thing to do is just delete the email.  They who have provided the wrong address will (hopefully) eventually notice that they're not getting any email from American Express, but its not your responsibility to correct somebody else's error.

if the emails are just email flyers (as in "get 0% for x months") or similar, just delete them., they're not worth dealing with.  If they were sending statements attached to emails and that had personal information on them, then tell the sender.  In between, use your judgement.  Unless you have any American Express products yourself,may be more beneficial just set up a rule to get shot of them all on receipt.

rach_k

I occasionally get a flurry of emails at my gmail account, for another person with the same name as me.  Mostly I ignore them.  When they were from her child's school about her child being absent, I contacted the school and they got her to sort it out.

PRAISETHESUN

It'll either be spam, or someone has input incorrect an email address when signing up for something - either way there isn't much you can do apart from how you deal with them. I'd ignore and delete the emails - particularly if they seem malicious. Depending on your email provider, you can setup filters/rules to sort them out automatically if they are a big problem.

I get a few emails like these from time to time and if they are from legitimate businesses I usually email their customer service team to unsubscribe your email address from their system - its safer than clicking any unsubscribe button in the emails you receive. Only once has a company refused to remove my email from their mailing list when I did this - some poor bloke in the US signed his bank account up to my email address and I got sent all his password resets and transaction alerts, and the bank wouldn't believe me when I claimed NOT to be him. It got sorted eventually and the guy actually emailed me a few months later to say thanks for not stealing all his money 

Robisere

This is why I have never used my name in email accounts, and I have had quite a few over the years. Quite apart from any send/receive confusion, how easy is it to have the first part of your ID? I use a phrase or saying and mix it up, eg: makesummatup@ daftmail.com

spenderdave

There is a lady somewhere up the country whose email has an extra letter in the middle from mine (BT) and I sometimes get emails supposedly for her. I did manage to work out her real address and contacted her so she is aware but still get her monthly O2 mobile bill alerts. Once I got a quote for a new boiler at her house, managed to alert the boiler company and they presumably sorted it as never heard from them again. It just seems she was clumsy when typing in her email address and ended up with mine instead.

Robisere

spenderdave said:

There is a lady somewhere up the country whose email has an extra letter in the middle from mine (BT) and I sometimes get emails supposedly for her. I did manage to work out her real address and contacted her so she is aware but still get her monthly O2 mobile bill alerts. Once I got a quote for a new boiler at her house, managed to alert the boiler company and they presumably sorted it as never heard from them again. It just seems she was clumsy when typing in her email address and ended up with mine instead.

Reinforces my point about using your name in an email address. ID is traceable.

forgotmyname

Created an email account for the wife and she started getting emails from a school in the US. First few were xxx
was not at school and they hope everyone is well.  None for a while then about after school activities and
projects that the child/teenager had done.

They appear to have stopped now, so assume they moved schools or grew up.

No emails use real names. When ISP's give an email address I never use that.

fuzzypanda35

I get the same thing. I created my email as first.last@domain.com I receive emails for someone who thinks their email is firstlast@domain.com
I've had insurance documents, hotel confirmations and all sorts in my inbox, all with their personal information. Initially I contacted the insurance company to let them know what was going on. When it continued happening, I don't bother anymore. If the person is too dense to realise they're not using the correct email, there's not much else I can do.