What to do when constantly being sent legitimate emails in error
Category
Back in 2004, I was lucky enough to get an early gmail account. Do you remember the days when they were more exclusive then goldust, and you could only invite a new person every few months. Anyways, I took pmooney@gmail.com. And although it is not a primary email address, I do use it for some services and have mail redirected to my pmooneynet account. My name is common, and online I share it with many others, including a comedian, a cricketer, a writer, and a Microsoft blogger. This has lead to some interesting emails over the years, but the best are from the former of that list.
I have been asked in the past to appear in the Saturday Night Live show. I have also been asked if I would be interested in writing a book about "black America". Both of which, although lucrative would be fundamentally flawed considering my race and geographical location, not to mention, lack of talent. I can let those types of emails go, as they are entertaining.
But about 1-2 times per week, I get an email for another pmooney (I think his name is Pat). These are from different people as if my email address is part of their mail list. And these are personal emails, related to many things. I started by ignoring them, then deleting them, then replying to the sender informing them of the mistake, then replying to all informing them of the collective mistake, and eventually went back to ignoring them.
On Friday, I received an email with a link to a secure citrix remote access portal, with link to software, username and password (no mention of SRA keyfob requirement, so I assume it is not necessary). Sent to a gmail account.
Sent to the WRONG gmail account... mine.
A person with knowledge of these technologies.
Luckily for them, a person with some professional morals. Information deleted.
Do any of you suffer the same fate as this? What do you do?
Back in 2004, I was lucky enough to get an early gmail account. Do you remember the days when they were more exclusive then goldust, and you could only invite a new person every few months. Anyways, I took pmooney@gmail.com. And although it is not a primary email address, I do use it for some services and have mail redirected to my pmooneynet account. My name is common, and online I share it with many others, including a comedian, a cricketer, a writer, and a Microsoft blogger. This has lead to some interesting emails over the years, but the best are from the former of that list.
I have been asked in the past to appear in the Saturday Night Live show. I have also been asked if I would be interested in writing a book about "black America". Both of which, although lucrative would be fundamentally flawed considering my race and geographical location, not to mention, lack of talent. I can let those types of emails go, as they are entertaining.
But about 1-2 times per week, I get an email for another pmooney (I think his name is Pat). These are from different people as if my email address is part of their mail list. And these are personal emails, related to many things. I started by ignoring them, then deleting them, then replying to the sender informing them of the mistake, then replying to all informing them of the collective mistake, and eventually went back to ignoring them.
On Friday, I received an email with a link to a secure citrix remote access portal, with link to software, username and password (no mention of SRA keyfob requirement, so I assume it is not necessary). Sent to a gmail account.
Sent to the WRONG gmail account... mine.
A person with knowledge of these technologies.
Luckily for them, a person with some professional morals. Information deleted.
Do any of you suffer the same fate as this? What do you do?
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Comments
For example, say there was no Gmail account for p.mooney@gmail.com -- they would then try and route any mail sent to such an address to the next nearest match (maybe you).
I've had all kinds of nonsense via this route, with various misspellings of my name against a gmail domain, and quite a few of them are legit. Eek!
Posted by Ben Poole At 22:28:28 On 06/10/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Vitor Pereira At 22:57:33 On 06/10/2008 | - Website - |
Anyway: Cheers mate, yer not alone in yer troubles!
Lars
Posted by Lars Berntrop-Bos At 00:56:36 On 07/10/2008 | - Website - |
... an address to the next nearest match
i.e. I get mail which is addressed quite differently to my GMail ID.
Posted by Ben Poole At 06:36:25 On 07/10/2008 | - Website - |
I meant to refer to "trying to be smart" and specifically to your example: p.mooney is indeed the same as pmooney you can address it any way you want.
The misspellings is weird I'll give you that.
Posted by Vitor Pereira At 09:59:16 On 07/10/2008 | - Website - |
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However, this part is false "Once you sign up for a particular username, any dot or capitalization variations are made permanently unavailable for new registration." - I have been able to register pedro.quaresma when pedroquaresma was taken.
Makes me wonder if I should register another email account...
Posted by Pedro Quaresma At 11:11:39 On 07/10/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Michael Kobrowski At 17:26:46 On 07/10/2008 | - Website - |
What cracks me up is how often I get e-mail at work for someone else. People type in "crobinson" and hit the tab key to accept the first match. Only it's me, not the person they intended to send the message to. The actual short name they want is "cyrobinson". They don't even bother to look at the name, they just hit Send. I used to forward it to the appropriate person, then I started responding and saying they sent it to the wrong person. Now I just ignore it.
Posted by Charles Robinson At 18:37:42 On 08/10/2008 | - Website - |