Mistakenly sent email- What to do?

Gael23

Someone has mistakenly sent me an email containing an attachment with quite personal and confidential information relating to another person.
I'm to quite sure what to do - do I just delete it and say nothing or mention it? I don't want to cause an awkward situation.

Polo_Mint

Delete it.

IF they come to you tell them you deleted it

hatrickpatrick

Obviously mail them back and tell them they've got the wrong person, otherwise they'll assume the intended recipient just never bothered to reply.

Winterlong

These lads will help you.

https:// wikileaks.org/

smash

Send it to 10 friends in the next minute or you'll get cancer!

razorblunt

Email them back advising you received it.
If they're close by tell them they can watch you delete it, also do a permanent delete i.e. the shift+delete in Outlook so they don't think you're going to retrieve it later.

corkonion

If its something important, I would reply simply stating "your email was sent to the incorrect address and it is now deleted"
Simply good manners to do so really.

Post it here so we can collectively decide what the best course of action is

Gael23

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Obviously mail them back and tell them they've got the wrong person, otherwise they'll assume the intended recipient just never bothered to reply.

Its a questionnaire that I need too fill out but instead of sending me a blank one, I got one that had already been filled inn by someone else.

ScumLord

Blackmail?

Ragnar Lothbrok

Do you know the person who sent it to you, or the person who's private details are included?

If not, I'd suggest just sending it back telling the sender to make sure to send it on to the intended recipient. Then again, it may be some sort of virus, so probably might be better to ignore it and bin it?

If you do know either of the parties involved, it might be awkward for you as they'll know you saw the confidential details, so I'd just delete without saying anything.

Or, do the dishonourable thing, and check out whether there's a blackmail opportunity in it for you

Gael23

Ragnar Lothbrok wrote: »

Do you know the person who sent it to you, or the person who's private details are included?

If not, I'd suggest just sending it back telling the sender to make sure to send it on to the intended recipient. Then again, it may be some sort of virus, so probably might be better to ignore it and bin it?

If you do know either of the parties involved, it might be awkward for you as they'll know you saw the confidential details, so I'd just delete without saying anything.

Or, do the dishonourable thing, and check out whether there's a blackmail opportunity in it for you

I know the person who sent it to me , without giving away too much in the event that I'm identified, its a screening questionnaire prior to a professional consultation that i'll be having. As you said, I feel if I say something they will know I saw it and in things where confidentiality is a big thing that could cause issues.

If it was sent by some attractive secretary, blackmail him or her into sex.

Winterlong

Gael23 wrote: »

I know the person who sent it to me , without giving away too much in the event that I'm identified, its a screening questionnaire prior to a professional consultation that i'll be having. As you said, I feel if I say something they will know I saw it and in things where confidentiality is a big thing that could cause issues.

If we are talking, for example, about a pre-medical questionaire, that you have to fill in at work then dont you think you should advise the sender of the email to stop her repeating the mistake over and over?
You dont need to feel bad about it, not your mistake. If asked did you read it then just say no. Not your fault, not your problem.

Avatar MIA

Gael23 wrote: »

I know the person who sent it to me , without giving away too much in the event that I'm identified, its a screening questionnaire prior to a professional consultation that i'll be having. As you said, I feel if I say something they will know I saw it and in things where confidentiality is a big thing that could cause issues.

Well, they ARE going to find out eventually it wasn't sent to the correct person, and then they'll check your emails and THEN, and only then, will you have done something wrong. Saw, and didn't inform them of their error.

Guy:Incognito

Print it out and shred it. Its the only way to ensure its properly destroyed.

Ragnar Lothbrok

Gael23 wrote: »

I know the person who sent it to me , without giving away too much in the event that I'm identified, its a screening questionnaire prior to a professional consultation that i'll be having. As you said, I feel if I say something they will know I saw it and in things where confidentiality is a big thing that could cause issues.

I don't think you can go down the road of just deleting it now, unfortunately, as you need a blank form yourself. I think you'll just have to ask the sender to email a BLANK form to you and explain that the one you received earlier had someone else's details included. Like a few others have already said, the mistake wasn't yours, and you may well be preventing the sender from making the same mistake over and over.

Yawns

I've been in your position a couple of times. As an early user of gmail and having a very common name, I get quite a bit. Some scam and some emails I shouldn't have seen at all. Most of the time I've just sent a quick reply saying I've received in error and asked them to double check their intended recipients email address is correct. Most of the times it's a quick thanks and nothing more heard from.

Pity a guard said thanks but continued to send to my address for a few weeks...


Best one was a UK media company had setup a train account using my email. I e-mailed them several times to tell them as I was getting their itineraries etc. Anyway after a couple of months of constant mails and being ignored I told them I would login to the train site and change the itineraries. Never paid heed until I finally did it. Changed every train booking made on a Tuesday. Afternoon trains became am trains etc. Fired off the changed itinerary to the company's email.

They stopped using the account or finally changed it over after that.

imitation

Use the infornation to crush your foes and climb the corperate ladder of course !

Witchie

A friend of mine got emails recently from the nhs meant for a woman in Scotland. She is talking to gmail about it.

bandwagonesque

If you used gmail and noticed it soon after you sent it, you could select 'undo' and recall it. If not, you're only option is to change your name and move country.

_Kaiser_

Just mail the sender back and say that you received a completed form in error and have deleted it but are making them aware.

Speedwell

When I was living in America a decade or so ago, some government entity in England kept sending me internal office e-mail, and my polite replies to the sender, "I am not the person you meant to send this to", went utterly ignored. After a few months of this, bored because I was unemployed at the time, I started correcting the PowerPoint presentations and Word documents for spelling, formatting, and page layout, and sending them back "reply all". Not only did I never hear from them again, but the ingrates didn't even pay me for my work.

Who's burd were they pictured banging?

AnonoBoy

bandwagonesque wrote: »

If you used gmail and noticed it soon after you sent it, you could select 'undo' and recall it. If not, you're only option is to change your name and move country.

The OP isn't the one who mistakenly sent the email, they received an email in error.

valoren

ScumLord wrote: »

Blackmail?

No, an email

:pac:

Gael23

Winterlong wrote: »

If we are talking, for example, about a pre-medical questionaire, that you have to fill in at work then dont you think you should advise the sender of the email to stop her repeating the mistake over and over?
You dont need to feel bad about it, not your mistake. If asked did you read it then just say no. Not your fault, not your problem.

Its not in that context, but the information thats contained is of the kind you would put on a pre medical questionnaire.
It states at the top that the information you give is strictly confidential.

micar

It's a beach of data protection.

You should tell the person who sent you the mail that yoy received another persons information.

They in turn should inform the individual and the data protection commissioner....but that's not your responsibility.

RDM_83 again

micar wrote: »

It's a beach of data protection.

You should tell the person who sent you the mail that yoy received another persons information.

They in turn should inform the individual and the data protection commissioner....but that's not your responsibility.

This, is financial stuff too? loads of law I don;t understand about SOX and stuff

The Masculinist

Email them back and tell them you are deleting it.

Keep it anyway. Finders keepers etc.

foggy_lad

Gael23 wrote: »

Its not in that context, but the information thats contained is of the kind you would put on a pre medical questionnaire.
It states at the top that the information you give is strictly confidential.

Report it to the sender and also to the Data Protection Commissioner, they could just as easily send your private and confidential details to another complete stranger unless they are thought a lesson!

jmayo

Gael23 wrote: »

Someone has mistakenly sent me an email containing an attachment with quite personal and confidential information relating to another person.
I'm to quite sure what to do - do I just delete it and say nothing or mention it? I don't want to cause an awkward situation.

Inform them.
You can't play stum because there is record that it was sent to you.
If you don't and it is check someone may want to know why you said/did nothing.

Also bear in mind if you got someone else's details, what is stop your private details being divulged in turn.

If it was internal then you could inform management.
Actually easy way of hanging someone out to dry.

If third party you could inform Data Protection Commissioner that the third party had divulged sensitive private information.

By the way what is seen can't be unseen, no matter how many times it is deleted.

Deleted User wrote: »

If it was sent by some attractive secretary, blackmail him or her into sex.

And I wonder why I don't trust the legal profession

biko

Do you want virus?

Because that is how you get virus.

rubadub

jmayo wrote: »

Inform them.
You can't play stum because there is record that it was sent to you.
If you don't and it is check someone may want to know why you said/did nothing.

and what are they going to do if you do not reply to that someone? or tell them to fcuk off?

jmayo wrote: »

Also bear in mind if you got someone else's details, what is stop your private details being divulged in turn.

how does that work? person gets a random email by mistake and suddenly their private details are at risk? is this what you are saying?

jmayo wrote: »

By the way what is seen can't be unseen, no matter how many times it is deleted.

this is not the "things I just copped on are fcuking obvious" thread.

I get lots of emails sent by mistake due to my simple gmail address. If I get one I think is genuine I check the email address in google to see if it is genuine, as many are just spam hoping to confirm your address is legit.

If I am sure it is fine I reply and tell them. I remember one cheeky cunt was warning me about it afterwards, getting sort of legalistic saying I had to delete it and how it was all confidential, and no politeness about it, told him to fcuk off, should have told him I would be posting it everywhere to put the shits up him.

jmayo

rubadub wrote: »

and what are they going to do if you do not reply to that someone? or tell them to fcuk off?

that depends on whether it was external or all within one organisation.

rubadub wrote: »

how does that work? person gets a random email by mistake and suddenly their private details are at risk? is this what you are saying?

No.
But the chances are if it is done to one person and no one is brought to task then it could be done again.
Doh.

rubadub wrote: »

this is not the "things I just copped on are fcuking obvious" thread.

Angry much.
Why not relax a little.

rubadub wrote: »

I get lots of emails sent by mistake due to my simple gmail address. If I get one I think is genuine I check the email address in google to see if it is genuine, as many are just spam hoping to confirm your address is legit.

Wipee do for you.
We all get spam.
This wasn't spam, it was from legitimate source and it appears that an email was expected from this source.
Thing is the email that was received contained private confidential information.
Check out Data Protection legislation.
That is major no no.

rubadub wrote: »

If I am sure it is fine I reply and tell them. I remember one cheeky cunt was warning me about it afterwards, getting sort of legalistic saying I had to delete it and how it was all confidential, and no politeness about it, told him to fcuk off, should have told him I would be posting it everywhere to put the shits up him.

No you should have said that you were informing data Protection Commissioner and he could discuss the matter with them.
Oh and depending on circumstance you could have asked to speak to his boss and that media might be interested in this lapse in confidentiality.

Also the fact you told him to fcuk off says more about you than them btw.

Yawns

I bet I know what he wants to say to you right now.

hardCopy

Some muppet keeps using my email address, has done for about 10 years now.

I don't know his correct email address but have informed several of his friends, family and professional contacts and still it goes on.

I used to receive sh1t joke emails from one of his relatives every week. I regularly get invited to events in the Belgian Embassy in Dublin. I used to get notifications from a jobs website in another country, I ended up logging in and changing the email address on this one myself. Just this week I was contacted by a Gaeltacht Coláiste about his child's upcoming course.

How can somebody not know their own fvcking email address? Or is this just a glimpse into the life of my Tyler Duren like alternate self?

Pro-tip:

Never open a document that you're not expecting. There's a lot of ransomware out there.

Speedwell

hardCopy wrote: »

Some muppet keeps using my email address, has done for about 10 years now.

I don't know his correct email address but have informed several of his friends, family and professional contacts and still it goes on.

I used to receive sh1t joke emails from one of his relatives every week. I regularly get invited to events in the Belgian Embassy in Dublin. I used to get notifications from a jobs website in another country, I ended up logging in and changing the email address on this one myself. Just this week I was contacted by a Gaeltacht Coláiste about his child's upcoming course.

How can somebody not know their own fvcking email address? Or is this just a glimpse into the life of my Tyler Duren like alternate self?

I have an account on a large online mail service that I opened in the early 90s. I was lucky enough to get an address in the form "commonword@mailservice.com". I frequently get mail intended for addresses such as "commonword1", "commonwordgrrl", "commmonword", "common_word" and "commonwords". There may be nothing the other fellow can do if the sender (or the sender's automated mail software) is the one making the error.

inforfun

Best to reply to them you received and deleted it.
If the sender is under the impression they sent that stuff to the right person, they might get in trouble (depending on what it is of course) when it turns out it was never sent to the intended recipient.

wokingvoter

ScumLord wrote: »

Blackmail?

DeRRRRRRR! Obviously!

corner of hells

Gael23 wrote: »

Someone has mistakenly sent me an email containing an attachment with quite personal and confidential information relating to another person.
I'm to quite sure what to do - do I just delete it and say nothing or mention it? I don't want to cause an awkward situation.

Burn your house down ?

hardCopy

Speedwell wrote: »

I have an account on a large online mail service that I opened in the early 90s. I was lucky enough to get an address in the form "commonword@mailservice.com". I frequently get mail intended for addresses such as "commonword1", "commonwordgrrl", "commmonword", "common_word" and "commonwords". There may be nothing the other fellow can do if the sender (or the sender's automated mail software) is the one making the error.

Yeah, mine is firstname.lastname on a popular service so it's quite possible some of them are transcription errors or something.

Saipanne

Just send it back. No harm done.




No.






Harm.

Winterlong

Any danger of an update OP?

Ragnar Lothbrok

Winterlong wrote: »

Any danger of an update OP?

No update? Obviously the intended recipient and the sender have teamed up and locked OP in a gimp trunk :eek:

Gael23

Gael23 wrote: »

Its a questionnaire that I need too fill out but instead of sending me a blank one, I got one that had already been filled inn by someone else.

That's a major fúck-up on their part. I'm in a job where data protection legislation is screamed down our throats at every turn. It's obsessive. I'd suggest, if possible, going over to the person who sent it to you and talking privately with them and deleting it there and leaving it at that. Hopefully they'll learn their lesson. It could have serious repercussions if it were reported to their superior.