Email spam annoyance vent

[rubytue]

I'm so frustrated. I have a gmail account that I have kept spam free for over 6 years. Its my professional sounding one (e.g. rtuesday). I don't give that out except for job searches, a few bank things, and my tenants.

Well, turns out "Rachel" Tuesday gave rtuesday out as her gmail address. I'm pretty sure of this because the first emails were from a car dealer addressed to Rachel. :-(

Well, now the car deal has sold the email. Or Rachel has given it out more. Or something.

My spam free email account is dead!!

And I really want to find Rachel Tuesday and beat her up for confusing her email address with Ruby Tuesday's email address!!

side note - my university email has had that problem before, but that is b/c my maiden name is the 2nd or 3rd most common. So the fact that I had the only email address that was first initial last name, no numbers or codes was amazing. Every fall a Rachel or a Robert or a Ralph would give it out. But that was usually easily fixable. And sometimes, I'd mess with them. Like when Robert was invited to pledge a fraternity (via email?! What happened to real bids).

[thatgirl2478]

UGH! I had that happen too - except I was getting family emails for another girl. I responded once that I wasn't the person intended for this email, but it didn't help. So now I just block.

[Becca]

Argh! I feel your pain!

My email is first name.last name@gmail

Two different people have accidentally given out my email. One Rebecca is an elderly missionary overseas, who is actually pretty nice - we have kept in touch over the years. But her elderly friends don't 'get' email and I am constantly getting confused with their friend and included on emails. I just forward them on to the person they were intended for. But I know ALL about her life.

The other Rebecca lives in Georgia and I have been getting her email for about a year. Emails from her college and her daughter's school, RSVPs to her daughters birthday party, etc. emails she probably actually wants. Just this week I got a park and rec class confirmation that has her phone number on it. I called her. I now know her real email and can forward stuff on.

I try to be nice about it, but it is super annoying. How can people not remember their own email?

[rubytue]

I was totally use to it and it didn't annoy me when I was verycommonname. But when you go from the 2nd most common last name to the eleventy-billionth most common last name, you expect some sheild!

On the other hand, that should make it easier to track down "Rachel" lol

[slug*bug]

Aug 24, 2012 8:30:31 GMT -5 Becca said:

Argh! I feel your pain!

One Rebecca is an elderly missionary overseas, who is actually pretty nice - we have kept in touch over the years. But her elderly friends don't 'get' email and I am constantly getting confused with their friend and included on emails. I just forward them on to the person they were intended for. But I know ALL about her life.

I'm in somewhat the same situation...but the opposite end. When I got an aol account a zillion years ago, aol suggested "[e-mail], because of course, [e-mail] was already taken.

You would NOT believe how many people leave off the '1'. I only found out b/c our last name is REALLY uncommon in the US, as in, we're all related, if only distantly. So, very nicely, [e-mail], who is a very distant relative in Utah, has been forwarding me messages periodically over the years.

[Melissa W.]

I get emails on my yahoo account for an attorney or title searcher in the Carolinas. So I get all kinds of emails about house closings, etc. I always respond that they have the wrong email address.