Everyone, please double-check your email address
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Apparently there's another Mason Wheeler out there. For the past 3 years, I've been sporadically getting email from companies and organizations I have nothing to do with, in a city I've never lived in. When I finally got one from his church, I wrote back, figuring that the writer would actually personally know the guy, and asking if he could pass along to my namesake that he's been using the wrong email address on stuff for a while now. After that, things trailed off quite a bit, but it never stopped completely.
A few days ago, though, I got an email from a background check company with some very personal information about fingerprints and FBI checks and whatnot! I called the company to explain the problem, and the lady I talked to mentioned that she'd already been in touch with the guy, because he'd noticed the problem and called them about it. Just... apparently not quite soon enough.
Please everyone, double-check when you put in your email address for something, (especially when it's not an autocomplete on a browser form that makes sure you get it right,) so you don't end up sending personal information to some stranger. This guy's very lucky I'm not an identity thief, because I could have totally ruined his life several times over by now with some of the stuff that's been sent to me...
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@masonwheeler said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
he's been using the wrong email address on stuff for a while now.
Wait . . . . What?
I realize I am probably greatly underestimating the level of stupidity in the world, but, how is that even possible? How do you use the "wrong" e-mail address?
I can understand a typo, but putting mason.wheeler@gmal.com on a form just means he won't get any e-mail.
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@El_Heffe said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
I realize I am probably greatly underestimating the level of stupidity in the world, but, how is that even possible? How do you use the "wrong" e-mail address?
I can understand a typo, but putting mason.wheeler@gmal.com on a form just means he won't get any e-mail.
By typoing it juuuuust right so that it ends up on my address rather than his. And doing so consistently. For three years.
Could be worse, though. A coworker from another job had something similar happen, and he says he's gotten stuff like the other guy's cable bills and bank statements!
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@El_Heffe said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
@masonwheeler said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
he's been using the wrong email address on stuff for a while now.
Wait . . . . What?
I realize I am probably greatly underestimating the level of stupidity in the world, but, how is that even possible? How do you use the "wrong" e-mail address?
I can understand a typo, but putting mason.wheeler@gmal.com on a form just means he won't get any e-mail.
but his name is Mason Wheeler, and he uses Gmail, so it's got to work!
no, i'm serious. i know people who would use that logic in al seriousness because they do not understand even the most basic of facts about computers. to them computers are shiny boxes full of magic and little demons that gibber and wail, and sort the mail so it goes to the right person.
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@masonwheeler I guess the upside from me having a completely unique first and last name combination is that this never happens to me.
Which is funny, since my Internet handle is apparently fairly common.
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@accalia Oh yeah. I also occasionally get Verizon Wireless phone bills for some lady (I assume; it's a feminine name at least) whose first and last names are completely different from mine. Repeated calls to Verizon have failed to resolve it because I'm not the account holder and so I can't authorize them to change information of record, but they're apparently unable to get ahold of the account holder--for over 2 years now!--even though she continues to actively use the service enough that I get pretty regular "you're running out of data for the month" warnings.
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Just switch to outlook.com
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@masonwheeler said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
they're apparently unable to get ahold of the account holder
Have they tried emailing her?
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@masonwheeler said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
@accalia Oh yeah. I also occasionally get Verizon Wireless phone bills for some lady (I assume; it's a feminine name at least) whose first and last names are completely different from mine. Repeated calls to Verizon have failed to resolve it because I'm not the account holder and so I can't authorize them to change information of record, but they're apparently unable to get ahold of the account holder--for over 2 years now!--even though she continues to actively use the service enough that I get pretty regular "you're running out of data for the month" warnings.
IIRC they list the phone number on those bills, yeah? you could just call.
or did the fxxx up and stop listing that phone number?
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@Jaloopa said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
Have they tried emailing her?
Ha ha.
You would think, though, that being the phone company, they could call her!
(On a related note, why is it that every time I have to call the phone company over some thing or another, they ask me for my number, and then continue to ask when I say "this number is fine"? How is it possible for them, of all people, to not have Caller ID?!?)
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@El_Heffe said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
@masonwheeler said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
he's been using the wrong email address on stuff for a while now.
Wait . . . . What?
I realize I am probably greatly underestimating the level of stupidity in the world, but, how is that even possible? How do you use the "wrong" e-mail address?
I can understand a typo, but putting mason.wheeler@gmal.com on a form just means he won't get any e-mail.
I have a douchenozzle somewhere whose email address probably differs from mine by the lack of two characters -- or if we're only counting significant characters, really by just one: mine contains a
.
in the username, which Gmail completely ignores, and ag
which is the difference between@gmail.com
and@mail.com
.Of course the extra fun factor is that for all the times that don't involve him typing it in wrong on the computer, even when he's on the phone or filling out paper forms the dumbasses hearing or reading it still probably assume that he did say or print it wrong because they've never heard of
@mail.com
or something.
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@masonwheeler said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
How is it possible for them, of all people, to not have Caller ID?!?)
i assume it's because they are not assuming that you are calling from the number they are servicing?
like if i call from the office phone instead of my cellphone...?
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@accalia In which case, saying "this number" should work. But no, they need the actual number because they don't have it at the call center. There's something fundamentally broken about that.
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@anotherusername said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
Of course the extra fun factor is that for all the times that don't involve him typing it in wrong on the computer, even when he's on the phone or filling out paper forms the dumbasses hearing or reading it still probably assume that he did say or print it wrong because they've never heard of @mail.com or something.
I have a friend who managed to snatch up
firstname.lastname@mail.com
email.No one believes him when he tries to give that email address...
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@Onyx I have
lastname.firstname@gmail.com
, but the address that I'm getting douchenozzle's mail at isn't that one.I also managed to snag
firstname.lastname@outlook.com
, but I don't ever use it. I'm just holding it so that nobody else can claim it.
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@anotherusername Do you mean your first and last name, or the literal words "lastname" and "firstname"? I think the latter is what @Onyx was talking about.
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@hungrier Nah, I wasn't, thought that would be a great troll email
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@hungrier oh, my actual first and last name. I wouldn't dream of registering the literal words
firstname.lastname
; it'd be way too much of a pain to try to explain it to people.
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@masonwheeler said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
@accalia Oh yeah. I also occasionally get Verizon Wireless phone bills for some lady (I assume; it's a feminine name at least) whose first and last names are completely different from mine. Repeated calls to Verizon have failed to resolve it because I'm not the account holder and so I can't authorize them to change information of record, but they're apparently unable to get ahold of the account holder--for over 2 years now!--even though she continues to actively use the service enough that I get pretty regular "you're running out of data for the month" warnings.
Mark it as spam.
When their emails stop getting to their customers...
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@masonwheeler said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
they're apparently unable to get ahold of the account holder--for over 2 years now!
Except their bank account, of course. That part must always work. Well it might not even be their bank account but it's someone's and it has money.
Hmm, I wonder what contract law has to say about contracts where you're not quite sure who the other party is.
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@anotherusername said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
@hungrier oh, my actual first and last name. I wouldn't dream of registering the literal words
firstname.lastname
; it'd be way too much of a pain to try to explain it to people.Be prepared for all the test email you'd get.
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@accalia said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
to them computers are shiny boxes full of magic and little demons that gibber and wail, and sort the mail so it goes to the right person.
Wait, you mean Terry Pratchett lied to me?
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Darn.
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Previous discussion: https://what.thedailywtf.com/topic/18563/popular-gmail-address
(Yes I know threads are free :P )
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I should count myself lucky for having a unique name - I have firstname.lastname@gmail, and never get anybody else's email. Probably doesn't hurt either that I got it way back in the early days of gmail, when you needed to wrangle an invitation from somebody to get an account.
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@UndergroundCode Yeah. I was friends with someone who, at the time, was working as a contractor with Google, so I got one of the first Gmail addresses.
...and then proceeded to barely use it for anything ever since, because I already had an established email address. :P
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@masonwheeler
So, really, you need to stop hoarding mason.wheeler@gmail.com and let The RealWTFDeserving Individual use it instead ;)
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@anotherusername said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
@Onyx I have
lastname.firstname@gmail.com
, but the address that I'm getting douchenozzle's mail at isn't that one.I also managed to snag
firstname.lastname@outlook.com
, but I don't ever use it. I'm just holding it so that nobody else can claim it.Hey, I emailed you at both addresses but you never responded!
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@kt_ said:
@anotherusername said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
@Onyx I have
lastname.firstname@gmail.com
, but the address that I'm getting douchenozzle's mail at isn't that one.I also managed to snag
firstname.lastname@outlook.com
, but I don't ever use it. I'm just holding it so that nobody else can claim it.Hey, I emailed you at both addresses but you never responded!
It's
another.username@outlook.com
. Obviously.
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My email for gmail is
frstnamelastname@gmail.com
Unfortunately
firstname.lastname
was taken, and I didn't want to put a bunch of numbers behind my name. Gmail suggested I turn "steven" into "stvn", so I did that instead.
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I truncated my surname for my serious e-mail-address.
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I got my firstname.lastname@gmail.com which surprised me... and then I went and got married and changed my name.
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@hungrier try
fristname.lastname
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@Dragnslcr said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
@accalia said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
to them computers are shiny boxes full of magic and little demons that gibber and wail, and sort the mail so it goes to the right person.
Wait, you mean Terry Pratchett lied to me?
welll, if you file his works using the Dewey Decimal system..... yes. If you file his books by category then author, no.
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@aliceif said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
I truncated my surname for my serious e-mail-address.
So it's
alicei@
?
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I've never gotten email for someone else. It's the plus-side of not using something really related to your name for your email address. The minus side is that no-one can spell it right.... I'm going to set up email forwarding at some point so I can use something short. (fl@xx.io probably.)
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@aliceif said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
I truncated my surname for my serious e-mail-address.
To "f"? :P
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@masonwheeler said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
For the past 3 years, I've been sporadically getting email from companies and organizations I have nothing to do with, in a city I've never lived in.
I used to get advertising for musicals and holidays, and at one time a confirmation for a holiday booking addressed to some family I’d never heard of on the other side of the country. I suspect they made a similar typo in their email address, but unsubscribing from some of these things proved difficult because they wanted more info than just the address, and clearly, I didn’t know that. Luckily I managed to stop it by sending a mail to some support address, but still. (I was kind of tempted to go on the holiday, except that it was to a destination I had no interest in :))
Then there’s my father, who not long ago got a text message on his phone that his new sim card was ready and would be sent to him soon — from a provider he wasn’t with. Then another one, with a link to a “personalised message” about that sim card. Phishing, we figured, but we checked it out (circumspectly) and it was completely legitimate — including a welcome video with someone’s name and more in it. That video gave us enough information to log onto the provider’s web site to see the intended recipient’s sim card order and learn his address and date of birth … Looks like he made a typo in his mobile number and gave my father’s as a result.
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I can nearly guarantee that I have a completely unique name on earth at this time, and probably in all history.
My personal email ID is generally<nickname><lastname>
, because using<firstname><lastname>
is longer than I want to type and<firstinitial><lastname>
is not unique; it collides with relatives' names.
I do have several anonymous/anonymized IDs for use online.
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@djls45 said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
I can nearly guarantee that I have a completely unique name on earth at this time, and probably in all history.
I chose my name very carefully such that this would be the case.
i'm currently debating whether to merge my legal name with my name.... but it's so fecking annoying to change your legal name.... it's not that expensive honestly..... just annoying.
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@accalia Ah. My given legal name from birth is unique. (It also fits pretty well into the song "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" over the titular name.)
You want to merge "Accalia" with your legal name? That could be cool, unless you're leery of associating your online persona with your RL identity. (That handle reminds me of acacia, a kind of woody plants.)
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@djls45 said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
You want to merge "Accalia" with your legal name?
if by merge i mean replace taking the left hand side? yeah, i've thought of it.
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@accalia ie. instead of Jane Smith you want to be Accalia Smith now?
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@djls45 said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
That could be cool, unless you're leery of associating your online persona with your RL identity.
meh. a little, but really it's a losing battle. Like i slipped up a couple of times and while i've done a good job of removing the links, once the links were made on the internet its impossible to remove completely.
Still you have to do a fair bit of digging to find my legal identity from my online name so i guess that's close enough.... Unless i decide to change my name legally to match my actual name.
@djls45 said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
That handle reminds me of acacia, a kind of woody plants.
I'm aware of the association, i assure you it's coincidence.
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@masonwheeler said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
@accalia ie. instead of Jane Smith you want to be Accalia Smith now?
nah. I'd be
Accalia Elementia
instead ofJane Smith
i mean it's possible. I had a friend change her name when she enlisted because in her words: "I'll go on parade naked before i'll be a Private Ball"
To be frank i'm surprised it took her until she enlisted to legally change her last name.
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@accalia said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
I had a friend change her name when she enlisted because in her words: "I'll go on parade naked before i'll be a Private Ball"
To be frank i'm surprised it took her until she enlisted to legally change her last name.
Could she have been waiting to change it until she got married?
I have an aunt who only changed a single letter in her last name when she married my uncle.
I also have a friend who didn't need to change her name at all when she married. Her and her husband's families have the same last name. They are not related, except perhaps very distantly, but at that point, so is everyone.
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@djls45 said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
Could she have been waiting to change it until she got married?
HA!
That one? change her name because of marriage?
HA!
nah man/woman/neuter/other/deletethosewhichareinappropriate, she's going to make her husband take her name.
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@accalia said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
she's going to make her husband take her name.
"I gotta meet this chick" - some guy named Richard Head
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@hungrier said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
@accalia said in Everyone, please double-check your email address:
she's going to make her husband take her name.
"I gotta meet this chick" - some guy named Richard Head
i'm sure our friend dick would love to meet her. i mean, having a first name of "Dick" can't be fun, and when she said "take my name" she meant the whole thing. :-)