I've Been Dealing with a Case of Mistaken Identity for Years!
This is just going to be a short story that I need to get off my chest. For the past 10 years or so, I've been receiving e-mails that were not intended for me.
Apparently, there's another person who has the same first and last name as me and I've been consistently receiving personal e-mails that were intended for this person.
My full name is Daan De Weerdt and my e-mail address is daandeweerdt@gm****
I've been receiving emails that were sent to this email address: daan.deweerdt@gm**** (blocking out part of the address to combat automated spam). Notice the dot between the first and last name? Might be some sort of issue with Gmail, I have no idea...
I have no idea what to do about this. I've been receiving baby pictures and even passwords from this guy who has the same name as me. I haven't got a clue how to contact him and I'm a bit scared to even try, since this has been going on for so long...
It almost sounds like I'm schizophrenic, but I can assure you that's not the case :P
Take a look at my mailbox, I have no idea who these people are. They're probably family of this guy who has the same name as me, since they have the same last name. It's really weird and this happens like 4 or 5 times per years perhaps.
So, other Daan De Weerdt, if you're reading this. I have no idea what to do to stop receiving emails that were intended for you. I want to get out of this situation, but I haven't got a clue how to contact you.
Hopefully he'll Google his name in the future and see this article. I know, it's a long shot...
Just email one of the senders back.
Yikes, that is horrible. Sometimes my husband receives email for someone else with his name. Nothing really personal like the ones you receive. I don't know what I would do, it probably feels like you are reading someones mail or something, uncomfortable for sure!
Have you tried writing to daan.deweerdt@gm**** ??? Haha.. just joking!
Surely there must be enough information in the account emails to get an alternate email or phone number? Or maybe you can see if you can do a phone recovery/location using the gmail address (if he has an android phone...).
FOR TSE ---> Remember the days of "answering machines?" No, of course not. You're way too young for that. But anyway -- before voice mail ... we had "answering machines." They would play a message you recorded and record a message the caller left you.
Back once in those long ago days, I began getting messages clearly intended for a doctor. A cardiologist -- coming from people like night nurses and technicians ... with information about patients under his care. I got so many of them regularly, it was clearly not your normal "wrong number," but rather that my number was recorded somewhere in error and associated with him.
FINALLY, I got a message with a clue about which hospital this was coming from. So I phoned and explained the situation (to multiple people, you know how it goes) ... and eventually got someone who could actually help me. We determined that there was a cardiologist with the first name I had who had practicing privileges there and yes, sure enough my phone number was listed as his "emergency contact / night number."
So ... as I tried to tell the woman that this needed to be fixed and she kept arguing with me -- I realized that she thought I was complaining because I was getting these unwanted calls, when in fact I wanted to get this solved because the doctor himself might need to know some of this information about his patients -- and it was all going to the wrong number.
She kept telling me "just ignore it" -- and I kept trying to get her to understand my concern -- but I'm not sure she ever got the point ... or that anything ever got fixed. (I did stop getting those calls though -- so I'm going to hope ... maybe.)
But Jeez, sometimes, as they say, it's just not worth chewing through the straps to try to deal with a problem -- especially one that only helps someone else.
I actually do remember the days of answering machines, I'm 29 so I grew up in the 90's ;-)
Oh God, that sounds absolutely horrible, how many calls must that doctor have missed because people were calling you instead...
You can only hope that those people weren't calling for anything serious or urgent. I'd be pretty worried about that as well. We're not talking about being mistaken for a restaurant or anything like that.
That's a bit freaky and as you say there's nothing you can do about it. Have you tried Facebook? anyone with a similar name to yours...
I don't know if its a common name or not. Smith is the most common here in England.
Yeah, should have added that to the post. There are multiple people on facebook that have the same first and last name as me, so I have no clue who to contact.
The personal pictures didn't include this guy's face, so can't tell from looking at those :-/
Yes I remember Google mail ignores dots so thats they your getting them, but II wish I could help on a way to let the other person know but I have no idea how to
Yes - google does not look at the dots in an email address.
That's a reason I received a lot of spam addressed to my email address but without the dot.
Actually, when you think about this ... no words for this "service" of google.
Unacceptable but it's like this from the very beginning.
Aha, I vaguely remember reading something about this. Glad that you confirmed it. So it's really about the dot, right? Someone must have used the wrong email address then and added a wrong domain or something like that.
Yes, [email protected] is the same as [email protected] and [email protected].
You can claim all these as single accounts but when receiving emails all three would receive them.
Ridiculous but true :(
What?! You can actually claim them???
Okay, that I didn't know. That's complete bullshit on Google's part.
I don't know how far you want to take this -- or how dangerous it might be, but you could try writing back to some of the people who are sending personal things like baby pictures ... and tell them what's happening. Someone with the same last name, etc. They might be a relative. They might have a phone number to reach him and let him know. Tell them why -- about the dot not meaning anything to GMail, etc. Just a thought.
I've been wanting to do that, but I don't because then I basically have to explain why I haven't said something earlier. Ideally I want to just contact the person who these emails are intended for, not get into a weird situation with his family members.
I understand totally. I just thought I'd mention it.
haha, wow, that's a pretty crazy situation! But you think the "real guy" receives the emails too? I wonder if he is getting your also!
I really hope he doesn't :P
I think the people sending these e-mails might have typed in a wrong e-mail address or something? Or it might be some issue with Gmail, I have no idea. Ideally, I'd want him to read this post and reach out to me :P
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