# Duplicated email addresses? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 6, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicated-email-addresses/685511 "2014-04-06T23:07:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicated-email-addresses/685511/21 "2014-04-07T15:20:56Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > I was also getting JohnMiller1’s email for years, and could never find him. I finally found him last year, because of some identifying info (he’s a parachute instructor). Someone had an urgent question about a backup chute, so I found his group’s group email and found him. I thought that was a pretty good reason to email his group - they were all very appreciative. :eek: > [@](#): > > And then several months ago, a person I now refer to as “Jackass John Miller” has decided to start using my email address to sign up for stuff. I know his phone number, his address, his chinese delivery preferences, etc. I hate him. I’ll probably send him a snail mail pretty soon if it keeps up. Speaking of which, if there are any Mac users that would like the keys to the latest MacHeist bundle, PM me, and they’re all yours. Change his passwords. Go to the site, use your email to request a new password, then log on and change his. Next time he goes there, he’ll be logged out and, in the end, have to change his email to get it straightened out. Or, if that’s too much, just hit the ‘Forgot my password’ button and delete the email you get. ---
**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:** [April 7, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicated-email-addresses/685511/22 "2014-04-07T17:03:48Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Change his passwords. Go to the site, use your email to request a new password, then log on and change his. Next time he goes there, he’ll be logged out and, in the end, have to change his email to get it straightened out. > Or, if that’s too much, just hit the ‘Forgot my password’ button and delete the email you get. I’m not who you were responding to, but I’ve tried that. Many sites are very obtuse, especially since I’ve never been there to sign up in the first place. If it’s personal e-mail I will respond with “Sorry wrong e-mail, I am not the person you know.” I’ve gotten to the point with commercial e-mail that I just hit the Report Spam button in Gmail. If they can’t have a proper e-mail verification system where the user has to receive and verify their e-mail address before being added to the system, then I do consider it spam in the broadest sense. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicated-email-addresses/685511/23 "2014-04-07T20:16:05Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Too lazy to try right now, but it’s not supposed to let you. Understand this here is [cozi.com](http://cozi.com)’s fault. They let someone sign up with periods, and won’t let me quit. I don’t know if it’s because the person is reactivating or what but they hide a lot of their options. I’ve seen more sites lately which don’t register you until you respond to an email they send. I suspect this is to deal with the problem of people entering the wrong email address twice. If everyone did that it would solve a lot of the problem. The root cause is that the Hamming distance between email addresses is now very small - so a small error will result in a legitimate address that will go to someone. This, like most problems, would be solved of all these clueless people get off my internet lawn. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicated-email-addresses/685511/24 "2014-04-07T22:00:24Z")
But seriously, who wants these (Mac-only, I’m guessing) software keys? They’re for: BoinxTV MacJournal Toon Boom Studio AccountEdge Pro iSale Picturesque Starry Night Pro ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicated-email-addresses/685511/25 "2014-04-07T23:35:31Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > That won’t confuse a computer, that’ll confuse a person. That is of course exactly what I meant. ---
**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:** [April 7, 2014, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicated-email-addresses/685511/26 "2014-04-07T23:49:35Z")
I ran into this, too on Gmail. It’s a guy in Georgia. The only problem is that I’m not sure what his actual email address is. The funniest situation was when I started getting invited to a family reunion. The sender and I talked back in forth a couple times, with me thinking that maybe it was some long lost relative. (It’s happened before in my family) Only later did I find out that they thought I was someone else. I only discovered this when they sent me a Facebook request. Everyone listed under my last name on her page was black. (Sure we could be related still, but it led me to ask questions.) I know the guy lives in Georgia because I’ve gotten emails about him needing to return his library book. That one, I went ahead and responded to. The one thing that was nice is that he always writes the email without a dot, while I always include one. So I created a filter to send all non-dotted emails to the Trash. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicated-email-addresses/685511/27 "2014-04-07T23:50:59Z")
Re: **kambuckta** ’s unwanted bromance with AmEx, which he had tried diligently to dissuade: > [@Reply](#): > > Why bother? Email is not a certified/reliable form of communication and glitches happen all the time. Just send it to spam and filter them out. Not **kambuckta** ’s problem, but may be for the guy who should be getting those e-mails. More and more, your contracts of adhesion (that is, unilaterally dictated by the other party, take-it-or-leave-it) contain an explicit provision that they may contact you by _any_ means, whether it be by telephone, e-mail, snail mail, or whatever, to any address/phone/location that they are able to obtain for you, from any source, regardless of whether you consent to receive communications at that address/phone/whatever, and that you agree that any communications thus delivered are deemed to be received by you and are legally binding on you. (Got all that?) Banks, for example, commonly have such terms in their account-holders disclosure agreements. They can then find addresses for you from whatever sources they can scrounge up. If they somehow find an old address for you where you no longer get your mail, or a wrong address, or an old e-mail address where you aren’t looking any more, they can presumably send stuff to you there and you’ve agreed that you will be bound by that. Thus, they absolve themselves of any responsibility to obtain and maintain accurate contact information about you, yet hold you responsible for whatever they find. Are such terms actually enforceable? Has this been tested in any court? ---
**Author:** ![Alpine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpine/32/17813_2.png) [@Alpine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpine)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicated-email-addresses/685511/28 "2014-04-08T01:18:44Z")
Not only am I getting some other yutz’s kid’s soccer team emails, they are in Swedish. I just noticed Gmail’s translate feature, though, so now I know that **Allt klart för avspark** means Ready for kickoff! Maybe I should write back and say **Ta bort mig från listan** (Please take me off the list.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicated-email-addresses/685511.md?page=1)