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Ask Slashdot: What To Do With Misdirected Email?

Posted by Soulskill on from the respond-in-character dept.

An anonymous reader writes "My Gmail account is of the form (first initial).(middle initial).(common last name)@gmail.com. I routinely receive emails clearly intended for someone else. These range from newsletters to personal and business emails. I've received email with various people's addresses, phone numbers and even financial information. A few years ago I started saving the more interesting ones, and now have an archive of hundreds of emails directed at no less than eight distinct individuals. I used to try replying to the personal ones with a form response, but it didn't seem to help. To make matters worse, I frequently find I can't use my email to create a new account at various sites because it's already been registered. Does anyone else have this problem? Is there any good way to handle this?"

5 of 388 comments (clear)

  1. Get a real mail account by Animats · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Get a real mail account and get off Gmail/Hotmail/other free service. You get what you pay for.

    1. Re: Get a real mail account by Nerdfest · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly. This also covers the case where your ISP or Microsoft or Google does something that you can't abide by. It decouples you from your provider. You can move to a different email hosting service or even run your own without much inconvenience. It also looks a little more professional than having a HotMail account.

  2. Well, for your second problem... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Reset password, follow emailed link, and the account is now yours. And, bonus if it's already been paid for.

  3. Happens to me a lot with my own domain by weave · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I own a very short domain name where the first part of the name is the same as many organization's name.

    e.g., if it was example.com then others have example.co.uk or exampleinc.com etc and I get a LOT of their email because I wildcard my domain for email and people just assume that example.com will work

    As I get them, I add a postfix rule to reject that specific username but I still get stuff, including very confidential stuff.

    I haven't advised these organizations because I fear they'll just turn around and try to dispute to get my domain or accuse me of criminal interception or whatever. So I just delete them and they can wonder why they never got a reply.

    Rule #1: "Email is not a guaranteed service."

    Rule #2: "Email is not secure. Stop sending confidential stuff through it"

  4. Would you do that to someone you know? by tlambert · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I call that abuse... It is illegal in my country (having a password does not authorize you to enter, similar to finding a key on the street). Second: It is unnice to other people who make a mistake.

    Would you do that to someone you know?

    In a heartbeat, if it meant they quit registering for crap and giving my email address isntead of their own email address.