# 10/18/13 xkcd **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 18, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-18-13-xkcd/671606 "2013-10-18T20:53:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-18-13-xkcd/671606/21 "2013-10-19T18:23:05Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > I knew instantly that the password was “pencil” Maybe you had recently seen _WarGames_. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2013, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-18-13-xkcd/671606/22 "2013-10-19T21:01:49Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > … my entire life I’m the only person on the planet with my particular first/last name combo. Then come to find a couple of years back there’s now a kid in another state with my name. … Chimera, I share your pain - my doppelganger is in Croatia of all places. Should I write? He’s only a teenager - will it mess him up? Does he have mail meant for me - maybe that winning lottery prize from the widowed wife of the CEO of the Royal Bank of London, Europe. ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-18-13-xkcd/671606/23 "2013-10-19T21:54:33Z")
Happened to me earlier this year. In my case, someone attempted to create a gmail account for themselves using the first initial + last name combination, but she typed it into gmail incorrectly. (ironically, my email address is not my first initial and last name, but it did match what she wanted). She thought she had my email address, but actually had one that was one letter different. She then proceeded to use my email to sign up for various services online. I eventually got her cell phone number (from her service plan, which was being sent to me) and called her up to let her know she didn’t have the email address she thought she did. She then had to go and change the email account on everything she’d signed up for. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2013, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-18-13-xkcd/671606/24 "2013-10-19T22:45:37Z")
There are at least two or three people who’ve erroneously used my Gmail address (in the first initial, middle initial, and last name style) to sign up for things. A Skype account, an estimate from a propane service, a charity run, and FTD order, and even their child’s primary school newsletter. The Skype and propane thing seem to have been one-time offenders, but the rest appear to be the work of the same very stupid woman. I have the full street address and phone number for her family and know the name of her husband, her child, and the name and address of her child’s school. I would call her to tell her to stop using my email address except she’s actually in a foreign country. I don’t feel like paying for an international call to explain to this moron why she never gets confirmation emails, her daughter’s school newsletter, etc. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2013, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-18-13-xkcd/671606/25 "2013-10-19T22:48:17Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The email address doesn’t bounce and you’re cleared to post on that site… Can you point to a site that works this way? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that checks only for a bounce, without also requiring a confirmation click/step of some kind. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2013, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-18-13-xkcd/671606/26 "2013-10-20T00:49:24Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Then I stated going down the **ingrediants list on the Mountain Dew can** I had on my desk and _those were all taken to!_. THAT, would be entirely expected. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2013, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-18-13-xkcd/671606/27 "2013-10-20T01:00:14Z")
My name is reasonably common: both a well-known video game developer and a semi-well-known musician share it, and I have gotten plenty of emails asking if I was the same. In fact, someone else in San Jose shared it, and his (sadly) demented mother kept calling me, not understanding that I wasn’t her son. But despite me actually having a jsmith@gmail.com-type address, I have not once gotten an incorrect email in the way that xkcd describes. ---
**Author:** ![\_xiao\_wenti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/b782af/32.png) [@\_xiao\_wenti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_xiao_wenti)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2013, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-18-13-xkcd/671606/28 "2013-10-20T13:20:23Z")
One of the problems is being an early adopter - I have [first name].[last name]@gmail.com. I got it when you needed invites for gmail. A decade (?) later, I have met most of my doppelgangers who adopted gmail later. The one in Dublin has horrible tastes from what I get from his on-line receipts. There’s one in South Carolina that I fought with Verizon so they would stop sending me his f’n bills. There’s on in the UK on the dole. I had to tell the social welfare people that I wasn’t him. There’s one who I kept on getting info on his HS reunion. I never went to mine and thought about going pretending to be him (he’s only a little younger) - Nice fantasy, but couldn’t get arsed enough to actually do it. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-18-13-xkcd/671606/29 "2013-10-22T20:07:12Z")
I get fairly regular e-mails from Georgia, UK, and Australia addressed to my e-mail in the [firstInitialLastname@gmail.com](mailto:firstInitialLastname@gmail.com) format. I don’t know if the UK and Australia guys are older than me, but the Georgia one is an Asian female, I’m a Caucasian male. And most recently someone bought a new Toyota and gave them my e-mail address, it’s hard to opt out of the various Toyota lists they’re subscribed to. If the company makes it too difficult I just mark the e-mail as spam, because really they shouldn’t make it so difficult. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-18-13-xkcd/671606/30 "2013-10-24T00:16:18Z")
In my case it’s not the email, but the domain name. I have a very common name, and there are a few other people with my name that are reasonably well-known, including an up and coming fashion designer. I registered my name as a domain name about 13 years ago, and for a while only used for emails. A couple of years ago I started using it as my professional website, and started getting emails from people asking to buy it, and one very clueless one demanding I transfer it to his wife because that was her name. The internet is full of people that should revert to telegrams. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-18-13-xkcd/671606/31 "2013-10-26T17:19:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > My address is [firstname.lastname@gmai.com](mailto:firstname.lastname@gmai.com), but fortunately my last name is fairly rare in the US, and so far as I know I’m the only person in the country with my first and last name. I think there might be another one in Germany, though. My main email is also set up like this, and my name is nearly unique–only four or so other people in the country with my combination of first and last name. But I did find out there’s this guy in Georgia who uses my email on things. The reason I know it’s in Georgia is because a public library contacted me in trying to collect a fine. And a bank in Georgia asked me to confirm his changed password. (And you can imagine how much stress that last one caused me before I figured it out.) I had, up until now, assumed it was just a typo or other miscommunication. Both of my names have several other common spellings. But now I wonder… Note: I mean the state of Georgia. I know the town, actually. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-18-13-xkcd/671606/32 "2013-10-26T17:23:02Z")
> [@tellyworth](#): > > Can you point to a site that works this way? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that checks only for a bounce, without also requiring a confirmation click/step of some kind. I don’t know of any either, but I do know of some that don’t actually check for email confirmation. I have, in the past, used obviously fake emails to check this sort of thing. (It’s usually something like [notmyreal@email.com](mailto:notmyreal@email.com) or something. I figure, if it does exist, it’s probably a spam catching account.) ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-18-13-xkcd/671606/33 "2013-10-26T17:42:27Z")
I’ve mentioned before (don’t remember when, but I did mention it) that in Hawaii, my name is the equivalent of “Joe Smith”. So perhaps it shouldn’t have been _extremely_ surprising when I got an e-mail at work addressed to someone with the exact same name (same spelling, too)…who is a major general in the army. What _was_ surprising when I got at least five other messages addressed to that very high ranking officer, all from different people. Not knowing how to reply to such a thing, I just decided that e-mail is a funny thing and deleted them. Maybe not the best choice, but what else could I do? I’m a busy man. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-18-13-xkcd/671606.md?page=1)