2 guys 1 email

blade1

not sure where to post this but anyhow.
i was on boards the other day and there was a bargain alert for sportsdirect.com.
so i went on their website for a nose.
now i am getting emails saying i bought stuff and its been shipped.
however its after been shipped to some guy in london with the same name as me.
just wondering, has the guy with the same name as me got the same email address as me?
also how did sportsdirect know it was me browsing their site?
anyone explain whats going on please?

ballsymchugh

blade1 wrote: »

not sure where to post this but anyhow.
i was on boards the other day and there was a bargain alert for sportsdirect.com.
so i went on their website for a nose.
now i am getting emails saying i bought stuff and its been shipped.
however its after been shipped to some guy in london with the same name as me.
just wondering, has the guy with the same name as me got the same email address as me?
also how did sportsdirect know it was me browsing their site?
anyone explain whats going on please?

have you a gmail account?
in the uk, people couldn't get a gmail account until recently, so they had googlemail accounts.
the same happens to me occasionally, i get emails for an underage hockey team!!

blade1

It's a hotmail account and my full name was on the emails I got?????

ads20101

I'd say that this is a big coincidence.

Your name sake has given in an order and either at his end or at sports directs the email was entered incorrectly that inadvertently became your correct address.

It isn't too uncommon for people to use their name as a basis for their email address.

Contact sports direct and inform them of the error

blade1

ads20101 wrote: »

I'd say that this is a big coincidence.

Your name sake has given in an order and either at his end or at sports directs the email was entered incorrectly that inadvertently became your correct address.

It isn't too uncommon for people to use their name as a basis for their email address.

Contact sports direct and inform them of the error

thank you,good advise.
yeah my email address is almost the same as my name.
cheers;)

blade1

ok.so today i bought something on ebay.
later today i received an email from the seller saying i never paid for a previous item that has been delivered to me (a chainsaw at £85). i did not purchase anything before from this seller.
also today i received a hp printer as a present and i went to register it online and couldn't because it said my email was already in use with another account.
whats going on????

Kenjataimu

That's a weird one... You should change passwords for your email/ebay/paypal just in case your accounts have been compromised.

Try contacting your email provider to see if somehow two very similar accounts are overlapping somehow... it's very odd.

And maybe ring ebay and tell them the situation. They might be able to find out why a seller thinks you have bought from him before.

blade1

I'm a bit worried about it as not sure is it some kind of a hack or something.
3 times on 3 different sites. I haven't a clue about these things.

Someone's been using my email address on hotmail to set up accounts on different sites and buy things as well. I've blocked everything I could. ebay didn't want to know at all and told me to sort it out myself. I'm certain they can't have access to my email address so I don't know what's going on tbh

alb

Typically you can't sign up for an email address someone else has already taken - an email address is globally unique. What has probably happened is that this other person has an email address very similar to you and is making a mistake entering it to sites and putting yours in instead.

If they do this for one site they are likely to do it for others. And worst of all you have no way of knowing their actual real address to let them know. Instead you will continue to get their mail, and they will never see it. The same thing has happened my wife a couple of times with people with a similar real life name.

blade1

hi bluewolf, thanks for reply.
you say you blocked everything.
would you mind elaborating a bit for me please?
like, what do i need to block and how?
cheers!

I just mean if they set up a twitter account with my email, I followed the link in the "welcome to twitter" email which had a "not your email?" type of thing on it. That got that account shut down. A retail site they signed up for, I had the password reset and changed it so they can't use it. Nothing I could do about the ebay one except send a message to their userid through ebay to let them know, then divert everything else to junk.
My email address has my full name in it; the name they've been using on all these sites has my first name but a different last name. The address they've been using has also varied but with the same UK postcode each time, which is rather bizarre.

blade1

alb wrote: »

Typically you can't sign up for an email address someone else has already taken - an email address is globally unique. What has probably happened is that this other person has an email address very similar to you and is making a mistake entering it to sites and putting yours in instead.

If they do this for one site they are likely to do it for others. And worst of all you have no way of knowing their actual real address to let them know. Instead you will continue to get their mail, and they will never see it. The same thing has happened my wife a couple of times with people with a similar real life name.

hi alb,is it really strange that 3 things i done matched 3 things the other person is connected.
1. went onto sportsdirect .com just for a look, later that day i'm getting emails that goods are shipped to same name as me but address in london.
2. buy something off seller on ebay that this other guy has ripped off.
3 the hp printer on the same account.

zbluebirdz

Check that your email account isn't auto-forwarding emails to another address. Do this before you change the password on other sites (otherwise the other fella would be seeing what you're changing ...)

convert

I've a similar issue with my gmail account at the moment. I keep getting emails from people in the UK regarding different things, such as courses they're attending, emails from a hotel retarding a complaint (I emailed the hotel about it), plane tickets being sent to me (was very tempted to use it - I think I just replied to the guy saying 'thanks for the ticket, but unfortunately I don't think it's meant for me'), etc. Someone also signed up to facebook using the same/similar account, and like bluewolf I just changed the password so it couldn't be used again - mean, perhaps, but did the job.

It's interesting what was mentioned about gmail and the UK - I've had my gmail account for ages which is convert's first name [dot] convert's surname [at] gmail [dot] com, and if the UK change in 'googlemail.com' only in the last while, then it probably only coincided with that. It's still annoying, though.

blade1

i just hope the guy that says i owe him £85 for a chainsaw can see that it wasn't me who bought it.
i have contacted him so hopefully it's just a case of me receiving an email meant for someone else.

ballsymchugh

convert wrote: »

I've a similar issue with my gmail account at the moment. I keep getting emails from people in the UK regarding different things, such as courses they're attending, emails from a hotel retarding a complaint (I emailed the hotel about it), plane tickets being sent to me (was very tempted to use it - I think I just replied to the guy saying 'thanks for the ticket, but unfortunately I don't think it's meant for me'), etc. Someone also signed up to facebook using the same/similar account, and like bluewolf I just changed the password so it couldn't be used again - mean, perhaps, but did the job.

It's interesting what was mentioned about gmail and the UK - I've had my gmail account for ages which is convert's first name [dot] convert's surname [at] gmail [dot] com, and if the UK change in 'googlemail.com' only in the last while, then it probably only coincided with that. It's still annoying, though.

i got house insurance documents for mrs jones there a couple of weeks ago. it's strange that only some of the mail gets through. surely if a hockey team and an insurance broker's emails end up in my account, how come not everything else is too?
i don't want it anyway, just curious!

My brother had a similar issue last week. He went to set up an Apple ID, only to find that his e-mail address was already registered. Thinking he had just forgotten the password he reset it, only to find it was registered to someone in the US.

I myself also had someone in Indonesia set up a Facebook profile using my e-mail address. Both addresses were Gmail accounts.

blade1

Karsini wrote: »

My brother had a similar issue last week. He went to set up an Apple ID, only to find that his e-mail address was already registered. Thinking he had just forgotten the password he reset it, only to find it was registered to someone in the US.

I myself also had someone in Indonesia set up a Facebook profile using my e-mail address. Both addresses were Gmail accounts.

mine is hotmail.
would it be a pain to change my email address?
would that be allowed on ebay or would it effect other sites i'm on like boards and so on?

pleasant Co.

hmmm just this week I got an account confirmation email from tumblr, as I hadn't signed up to it I just deleted the account, strange though.

WhatNowForUs?

I must add that last week hotmail logged me out saying there were irregular logging ins on my account. I have not been able to get back in. This after 13 years of service. There I was blaming my children.

Riesen_Meal

WhatNowForUs? wrote: »

I must add that last week hotmail logged me out saying there were irregular logging ins on my account. I have not been able to get back in. This after 13 years of service. There I was blaming my children.

Have you got the security set up on it so it texts your mobile?

WhatNowForUs?

Fieldog wrote: »

Have you got the security set up on it so it texts your mobile?

My wifes hotmail account is connected to my mobile. I have to log on to my hotmail account if going through my mobile.

Kenny Logins

convert wrote: »

I've a similar issue with my gmail account at the moment. I keep getting emails from people in the UK regarding different things, such as courses they're attending, emails from a hotel retarding a complaint (I emailed the hotel about it), plane tickets being sent to me (was very tempted to use it - I think I just replied to the guy saying 'thanks for the ticket, but unfortunately I don't think it's meant for me'), etc. Someone also signed up to facebook using the same/similar account, and like bluewolf I just changed the password so it couldn't be used again - mean, perhaps, but did the job.

It's interesting what was mentioned about gmail and the UK - I've had my gmail account for ages which is convert's first name [dot] convert's surname [at] gmail [dot] com, and if the UK change in 'googlemail.com' only in the last while, then it probably only coincided with that. It's still annoying, though.

Dots mean nothing in a gmail email address (you can insert them anywhere after signing up, and still get your mail), maybe somehow that is the issue?

Miss Lockhart

I tried to set up an account with the iTunes store recently but it said my email was already in use. Thinking I had forgotten about an account from years ago I reset the password and logged in. When I went to buy a song I realised the account belonged to a woman in Cavan. I could see her name, address, phone number and card details. I could have bought music on her card.

I contacted iTunes and they closed the account. They seemed unconcerned about the fact that someone's data had been compromised though.

seamus

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Dots mean nothing in a gmail email address (you can insert them anywhere after signing up, and still get your mail), maybe somehow that is the issue?

This happens with my account all the time. I routinely use it as firstname.lastname@gmail.com, but some guy with the same name has been giving out firstnamelastname@gmail.com for years. It's usually personal email he gets sent to it rather than emails from sites, so I can only assume he calls it out to people in person and then wonders why nobody ever emails him.

Tar.Aldarion

Apparently I'm moving in somewhere in england and they are handing over the keys soon, good times.

aphex™

A retiring US professor set me up with his online banking via gmail. All the confirmation emails, everything. :eek:

My gmail address is similar to his surname.

He gives it out to people and also forwards me stuff from his blackberry. Last week my BMW was due to be collected after it's service and then I got forwarded a picture of Bruce Willis. :pac:

Set up a 1c payment from his account with "you're using the wrong email address" as a payee

athtrasna

Yahoo allow multiple versions across all their extensions, I had a similar issue with Monster I think it was. Say if my name was Mary Jones for example, and my email was mary.jones@yahoo.ie, someone else can set up mary.jones@yahoo.com - I found an American woman's cv on my Monster account, Monster didn't recognise the difference between .com and .ie - in the end got the account deleted after a couple of days of password re-set ping pong.

convert

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Dots mean nothing in a gmail email address (you can insert them anywhere after signing up, and still get your mail), maybe somehow that is the issue?

That's what I thought, and I've tried it a few times from my other email accounts, and I always get the mail, but I'm experiencing the exact same thing as Seamus. Gets a bit frustrating at times.

seamus

I don't think the @googlemail switchover is the issue, that's effectively just a facade. You can send a mail using either the @gmail or @googlemail address and it will go to the same account.

Years back when UPC terminated a lot of traffic in the UK, I would see "GoogleMail" branding when I logged in from home and "Gmail" branding when logged in from work, using the same account on both. I never experienced any problems sending or receiving mail.

the_syco

seamus wrote: »

This happens with my account all the time. I routinely use it as firstname.lastname@gmail.com, but some guy with the same name has been giving out firstnamelastname@gmail.com for years. It's usually personal email he gets sent to it rather than emails from sites, so I can only assume he calls it out to people in person and then wonders why nobody ever emails him.

Had something like this, except the person had a middle initial. When I tracked down what was happening, he apologized, gave me some of his history (going back to his great grandfather which was cool), and all was good.

Have had some school email me, seems some 5 year old kid gave them my email address. They stopped emailing me after a few emails of me telling them they've got the wrong person. Got some random email a few weeks later, so CC'ed a few from their school board, etc, asking them about their data protection policies, etc, and haven't heard from them since ^.^

keithclancy

seamus wrote: »

This happens with my account all the time. I routinely use it as firstname.lastname@gmail.com, but some guy with the same name has been giving out firstnamelastname@gmail.com for years. It's usually personal email he gets sent to it rather than emails from sites, so I can only assume he calls it out to people in person and then wonders why nobody ever emails him.

Thats not possible.

GMAIL just strips out the dots.

e.g.
johnnywalker@gmail.com
johnny.walker@gmail.com goes to the same address
as does
j.ohnnywalker@gmail.com
j.o.h.n.n.y.w.a.l.k.e.r@gmail.com
and so on

seamus

keithclancy wrote: »

Thats not possible.

GMAIL just strips out the dots.

Yes, exactly.

So I use firstname.lastname@gmail.com. Which means that I own that address and all permutations with and without dots.

This other guy appears to keep giving out firstnamelastname@gmail.com to people and I continually get his mail.

I have no idea what he thinks his address is or what he uses to log into gmail.

ads20101

keithclancy wrote: »

Thats not possible.

GMAIL just strips out the dots.

e.g.
johnnywalker@gmail.com
johnny.walker@gmail.com goes to the same address
as does
j.ohnnywalker@gmail.com
j.o.h.n.n.y.w.a.l.k.e.r@gmail.com
and so on

Do you know I was sceptical about this assertion so I've just tried it with my gmail acc..... And it works with dots in it.

Amazing

seamus

ads20101 wrote: »

Do you know I was sceptical about this assertion so I've just tried it with my gmail acc..... And it works with dots in it.

Amazing

Another trick you can use if you're signing up for newsletters, etc, is to auto-tag emails as they come in. So you can tell them your address is <name>+<tag>@gmail.com.

So for example if you signup for something like groupon with johndoe+groupon@gmail.com, all emails from them will automatically be tagged with "Groupon" in your inbox so they can be easily found or filtered.

Doesn't really work with sites where your email address is also your username, but it is useful with dodgy sites or newsletters so that you can easily block all incoming mail from them or you can see if they have sold your address onto someone else.

wyrn

Hey OP, I've the same problem but this stretches back years.

I've a Hotmail and Gmail account which is my name and even though it's not that common, people with the same name have managed to sign me up to stuff. Mostly in the US. I'm getting junior league hockey mom e-mails. My favourite has been "The Wedding". Someone gave my e-mail to the wedding planner for the most lavish wedding I've ever heard of. Took me a while to cop what was going on.

Mostly it's just newsletters and the likes and I've a pain in my face unsubscribing from stuff.

ballsymchugh

wyrn wrote: »

Hey OP, I've the same problem but this stretches back years.

I've a Hotmail and Gmail account which is my name and even though it's not that common, people with the same name have managed to sign me up to stuff. Mostly in the US. I'm getting junior league hockey mom e-mails. My favourite has been "The Wedding". Someone gave my e-mail to the wedding planner for the most lavish wedding I've ever heard of. Took me a while to cop what was going on.

Mostly it's just newsletters and the likes and I've a pain in my face unsubscribing from stuff.

do you still have it? can we have a gander?!!:pac:

blade1

ballsymchugh wrote: »

do you still have it? can we have a gander?!!:pac:

Nosey hole!!:pac:

ballsymchugh

blade1 wrote: »

Nosey hole!!:pac:

actually, should be posted over in the wedding forum, just so that no one will think they're over doing anything!!

Kolido

Regarding email addresses, the part before the @ sign, technically can be case sensitive although I'm not aware of any email proviers who enforce this. The part after the @ sign (ie. the domain name) is never case sensitive.