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Gmail and dots

Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 11:24 am
by Tafdolphin
Has anyone had any issues with misdirected emails due to Gmail's 'Dots don't matter' principle?

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150

I keep getting emails for another person with my name who is apparently giving out my email address (myfirstname.mylastname@gmail.com) without the dot. Is there any way to stop this?

Re: Gmail and dots

Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 12:04 pm
by Peter Crisp
I've been getting mail for a guy with my name who lives in New Zealand and he annoyingly has a way better life than I do :x .

He's of gallivanting about and hiring cars in all sorts of places and I end up with the surveys about how they did.
I've tried emailing the people trying to email him and letting them know but I'm still getting them despite being sent friendly replies saying Thank you for doing so so I'm unsure what else to do.

Re: Gmail and dots

Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 12:15 pm
by Alvin Flummux
Peter Crisp wrote:I've been getting mail for a guy with my name who lives in New Zealand and he annoyingly has a way better life than I do :x .


Steal it. It's the only reasonable course of action.

Re: Gmail and dots

Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 3:05 pm
by satriales
I always add dots to my email when ordering a pizza from Papa John's, otherwise they recognise my email and try to make me log in.

Also, slightly unrelated but yeterday someone used my address when buying from Screwfix and their invoice got sent to my email. Tempted to close my account there now.

Re: Gmail and dots

Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 3:33 pm
by Mini E
I get a lot of letting agreements and statements for a guy in London with the same name as me who has a LOT more money than me. I'm fairly sure I actually have enough information now that I could act on it if I wanted to.

Re: Gmail and dots

Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 3:34 pm
by <]:^D
kill him and assume his identity and money like a modern-day Patrick Bateman

Re: Gmail and dots

Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 3:56 pm
by That
For bonus points use his body as a way to fake your own death.

Re: Gmail and dots

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2018 10:42 am
by Johnny Ryall
I get for a Craig in Canada's hair appointments and church meetings and a guy in south Africa's mortgage. I tried replying back to the moon robotic ones telling them but I still get them so just mark as spam now.

Re: Gmail and dots

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 10:27 am
by Tafdolphin
Just got another one, apparently for the same guy, this time a plumbing invoice. He lives in a very swanky part of London.

Why is it that all our alternate selves are super strawberry floating rich?

EDIT: Does this mean that my other self didn't get this email at all? Or would this have been forwarded by some magic to his actual address? Also, if dots don't matter, why has he been able to apparently secure the same email address as me, just without the dots? Or is he simply giving people the wrong address?

Re: Gmail and dots

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:29 pm
by Green Gecko
I'm not sure this "dots don't matter" thing is a thing. You can register name+surname on gmail, but if you do that, I think you automatically get both the version with the dot, and the one without. I can barely remember anything about this from back when gmail was still in beta.

He's either giving out a fake email address and is too much of a dumb twat to think of that email actually existing for someone or he may be one of these absolutely clueless tossers who thinks (this happened to me with a kid in the states once) that you don't have to sign up for an email address, you just start using one by literally making it up. Because too many sites don't verify your email in any way when you create an account (or they do it using a text message instead), this means people can just use whatever email address and basically pass off your identity if only that piece of personal information is used.

The same thing happens with people's addresses. Which is why you should shred anything even with just your name and address on it (ever been asked to provide an address history? How about giving someone else's?)

Anyway. That's what I make of it.

I wouldn't bother trying to contact the person. They're probably thick as gooseberry fool. Just create a rule in your Gmail to delete anything sent to the dot version - and don't give that out. If someone fails to email you by not using the correct address you provided, that's their fault. You could always move it to spam instead anyway, so it isn't deleted for 30 days. Here's a useful search query if someone insists they've emailed you in this way.

Code: Select all

in:spam stuff

Code: Select all

in:trash stuff

Re: Gmail and dots

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 2:28 pm
by Rik_
I've never had emails for other people but I get several cold calls a week asking for a "Slex Howe" who evidently put my mobile number into something instead of his. A certain text message actually had his address in it so I'm tempted to write him an angry letter lol

Re: Gmail and dots

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2018 8:57 am
by Curls
There was a dude in uni with the same name as me. I was in third year and he was in first. He'd always miss his lectures and get loads of warning emails. He had numbers after his email and I did not, so i'd have to forward them onto him He did the same subject as me too. weird. Anyway I found the little gooseberry fool in the corridors one day and warned him that he's going to get kicked out of uni if he doesn't start attending lectures, he laughed and continued living his blaze first year lifestyle. What a fooooool.

Re: Gmail and dots

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2018 1:01 pm
by <]:^D
are you still in contact with him?

Re: Gmail and dots

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2018 7:46 pm
by Curls
Can't say I am no, is it you?