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-   -   Email address being used by someone else? (http://www.gentlechristianmothers.com/community/showthread.php?t=530023)

RealLifeMama 01-19-2022 02:03 PM

Email address being used by someone else?
 
I have recently been sent a few emails that say "verify your email address" for dating sites and prepaid credit cards.
When I hover over the links (not clicking) the address in the lower left corner is the actual site it should be, not some random letters/numbers like when I get phishing emails from banks and stuff.
The dating ones just say "guest" but the credit card ones have a first name.

I have a "." in my gmail because I am pretty sure when I first set up my gmail, what I wanted was not available without a dot, but the odd thing is that if I try to log in without a dot, it still takes me to my account. And the other odd thing is that my account has my husband's first name attached to it because he used it one time for something google-y and put his name in and it attached it to the account and it had never had a first name before.

I don't really use my gmail account ever, I just have it because I have android devices and well, as much as I'd love to *not* have a google id, I haven't figured out how not to have one and still get to see people's docs they share through google docs. (that is the catch, right?)

Anyway, have any of you experienced this? I don't know if someone is playing a joke, or if someone is doing something nefarious, or if I should just cancel my google id and just start over, or what. A long time ago, I thought I'd use this account, so I did subscribe to some blogs and stuff, so it is possible that those lists were sold or hacked or whatever, but that does not explain the lack of a "dot" in the address (as an amyX as opposed to amy.X in the address.)
What would you do? I changed my password a couple of weeks ago, and will change it again.

SewingGreenMama 01-19-2022 04:20 PM

Re: Email address being used by someone else?
 
I would change my password to a very complicated 30 character password, I use bit Warden to keep track of all my passwords, and then I would make sure I have two part identification sign in. So it has to send you a text or it pops up a screen on your phone to say are you signing in do you want to approve? Or it'll send you a text to your phone with a code that you have to type in. I have this on most of my accounts now.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

JoannaV 01-19-2022 07:57 PM

Re: Email address being used by someone else?
 
Dots are somewhat irrelevant, and you own all Gmail addresses with fewer and more dots. (So it's weird if you initially couldn't sign up with an identical nondotted version.) It could be that someone else has a similar email but with extra numbers or something but they keep forgetting to write those in and so stuff is coming to your address.

knitlove 01-19-2022 08:36 PM

Re: Email address being used by someone else?
 
My husband had this happen. It started with dating sights and then once he got a lone application to a creadit union not in our state. He called the creadit union be double check that it wasn't some one trying to be him. Nope my dh's email is first.last@gmail. this guy has put in firstlast@gmail. From a not to discreet person at the creadit union we found out that there is a guy to has dh's first and last name but who typically had a different email address.


My brother's email is a similar first.last name and he ocasionally gets emails for a professor, I think at Oxford, who has his same name. That guy did give a wrong email ( spliced the front of his work email on to the back of the Gmail) to a realtor when looking for houses. My brother contacted the realtor so that the guy could actually get the emails, and then connected with the guy (I think though the realtor)when he got a couple of emails from students who has messed up the address arrived in my brother's in box.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

derdsgirl 01-19-2022 11:01 PM

Re: Email address being used by someone else?
 
What Joanna said. Dots are irrelevant in Gmail account names. DH and I have a joint account and an old couple in MI has the same email but with a different service (like yahoo or MSN or something) anyway, we got their emails from time to time. I found their daughter (they are elderly) and let her know and she corrected the situation.

So it could be someone with the same name but with a different email server.

Change passwords to be safe, but my guess is someone is entering the wrong email into these sites. You might see if there is a place on the emails to report that you did not sign up for this service.

Somewhere in settings allows you to change the name associated with your email, but honestly, it doesn't matter, especially if you arent using it. Ours somehow have all sorts of weird combinations of our names on there.

"Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses - Gmail Help" https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en

Soliloquy 01-21-2022 03:34 PM

Re: Email address being used by someone else?
 
I have several people who don't know their email address and they use mine. One of them has my exact first and last name. I get emails from her kids school, from her car loan applications, and I know what MLMs she's signed up with, etc etc etc. I was able to find her. I contacted her kids school and they removed my email address from their database.

Then there's several people who have my same first initial and last name and occasionally use my email address.

I just delete them.

expatmom 01-25-2022 10:28 AM

Re: Email address being used by someone else?
 
Someone with my same name has the same email address minus a period. She is a first or second seat in an orchestra. I occasionally get the most amusing orchestral gossip emails from her colleagues who get the email wrong. It is very amusing.

RealLifeMama 01-25-2022 11:48 AM

Re: Email address being used by someone else?
 
:giggle expatmom

Well, God bless this person, if they are in fact a real person. Based on the emails I have received, it seems like they are really trying to find love, find a job, and rebuild their credit in the new year with sensible prepaid cards. All good goals.


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