Item — HN Reader

Since we're sharing anecdotes... I also have a gmail address with a fairly common name.

1) I've received a bunch of Fw: emails from an Australian person over the years that I ignored as spam. Until he sent a very personal one, inviting me to catch up over beers since it's been so long, at which point I took pity and replied along the lines of "Hello! This is not the address of who you think it is. You're emailing the wrong person. Have a nice day." To which he replied "Lol, nice one!" Eventually the emails stopped.

2) I received a message from a major American company that if I didn't take action urgently, something or other would happen to my requested service. Ok, fine. Then within the next 5 months I've received at least half a dozen emails from them titled "FINAL WARNING: ...", stressing just how important it was for me to acknowledge it. I suspect the company is run by the people behind the Final Destination films or the Final Fantasy games.

3 comments

I've been getting someone's utility bills, monthly payment reminders, and monthly payment confirmations at myname@gmail.com. I contacted the power company, said they were emailing the wrong person, and asked if they could make the emails stop. Even though I emailed from the account that was receiving the messages, they said they can't change the email preferences since I'm not the account-holder. A nice little Catch-22.

I met the same Catch-22 with PayPal.

GDPR will help you there. Less than 5 minutes and I had it solved.

I receive lots of such emails. In most cases, I just end up with one series of emails from another person who shares my first initial and last name... such as one person's credit card payment emails, another person's cable television bill, another person's sports team updates...

But for about eight years I received numerous emails for some town council member in England. At first, I replied back to explain the misdirected mail, but they kept coming. Meeting minutes. Town council activities. Pamphlet distribution arrangements. A message from a member of the British parliament.

Then one day, I'm not sure what happened, but it must have clicked with them. I received a "test" email addressed to both myself and the actual intended recipient, in which it was explained that they presumed they had the correct address all along because the mail didn't bounce.

After that, the messages stopped. I kind of miss getting them now, but I'm glad they got it all sorted out.

Apparently final fantasy 1 was the Creator's last chance to make a successful game before getting fired from squaresoft