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Gmail Mis.delivered?
An anonymous reader writes "Google doesn't make many mistakes but when it does, boy, are they doozies! The latest is that Gmail doesn't care about periods in usernames. So mail sent to anonymous.coward@gmail.com is also delivered to anonymouscoward@gmail.com, even though these are two separate mail accounts. Google admits Gmail doesn't see periods, but no word on a fix yet." Update: As may users have pointed out Ars has since corrected the story, stating that the original submitter was mistaken and the email was just improperly addressed.
I've been wondering why I've been getting mail for some guy in Australia with the same name, yet when I looked at the To: line, it has a dot in the username.
I think the mistake is letting multiple uses register those names. Say, I sign up as joe.smith@gmail.com and it allows someone else to sign up as joesmith@gmail.com. This user can now read my mail. That's a huge problem. If Google is planning on including this "feature" then they need to not allow users to register joesmith@gmail.com after joe.smith@gmail.com has be registered, and vice versa.
All this week I have been receiving mail from a nice young lady in Naples about rental accomodation there. This wasnt spam, not in the slightest, it was most definately proper email about a rental enquiry made to her.
So after I got a few, I emailed her back and informed her I had no idea who she was, what these rentals were for and where did she get my information.
It turns out that she IS talking to another 'Richard Price', who had given her this email address and she was most confused. She was talking to this guy via his cell phone, had sent to and received physical mail from a mailing address fine but all his emails were coming to me.
I wonder if this was why.