Gmail account I never created - how much to worry?

[robby]

@Briny_Deep

…So I assume the other account’s owner received messages of unauthorized activity and managed to wrest control back, using his phone as a security key. Good for him.

That’s a good resolution and I’m glad he was able to figure things out and get control back himself.

@Briny_Deep

Perhaps we are done here, but I might shoot him an email at the LastFirst address which he now controls again, explaining what happened – without mentioning I read any emails – and asking him to remove my address as account backup.

I think this is a good idea. And since he now controls the account again, you really don’t need to provide a detailed explanation at this point. Just tell him you got a bunch of alerts at your email address that he erroneously listed as the account backup, and that he should fix this on his end ASAP.

Oh, and make sure you send the email from your Gmail account (the firstname_lastname at gmail .com one). That will hopefully make it clear that you are on the up-and-up.

[Dewey_Finn]

I have a sort of similar issue in that my email address is firstname.lastname@gmail.com and someone thinks they have firstnamelastname@gmail.com. So I get email to schedule service for their car and from their bank. Google doesn’t distinguish between email addresses with and without the period so I don’t know how they think they have my address.

[Horatius]

@Briny_Deep

(What, a slip of the keyboard, they “accidentally” typed in your email?)

Some people do that. I’ve got an address FirstnameLastname at provider dot com. Every few years, a guy in Toronto with the same name forgets his own e-mail address, and uses mine to sign up for something, or he gets e-mail from family and business partners to whom he gave the wrong address. Just last month I had a front-row seat to the saga of him buying new shoes online.

[Briny_Deep]

I shouldn’t be so haughty about it. People make mistakes. But this:

@Dewey_Finn

Google doesn’t distinguish between email addresses with and without the period

is entirely insane. Some characters are more equal than others?

[doreen]

Not really - after all, if google ignores the dot that means that it’s not possible for two people to have addresses that differ only by the dot. Probably cuts down quite a bit on misdirected email.

[BigT]

@Dewey_Finn

I have a sort of similar issue in that my email address is firstname.lastname@gmail.com and someone thinks they have firstnamelastname@gmail.com. So I get email to schedule service for their car and from their bank. Google doesn’t distinguish between email addresses with and without the period so I don’t know how they think they have my address. ⁢

I’m pretty sure I have that situation, too. Some guy in Georgia who has a kid in school there. At some points, I even emailed people to tell them they had the wrong email address and to contact him to get the real one.

I actually created a filter that automatically trashes any emails sent to firstnamelastname@gmail.com.