Quite a few, actually.
I was one of the people who snagged a Gmail account way back in ’04 when it was still beta. Therefore, I managed to claim my ideal username — kellybelly.
Apparently a lot of people out there named Kelly want this email address for themselves — so much so that they actually think that it’s their email account …. and they sign up for sites using it!
Over the past few years I’ve got a Facebook account, a Friendster account, a Kodak gallery account, access to an LA Fitness account… today I was signed up for some book club. I’ve gotten someone’s homework, scripts for the school play and information about job interviews. The worst offender is some chick who keeps signing up her kid (or letting her kid sign up) for a bunch of kid-themed sites: Barbie, Build-A-Bear, etc. I’ve managed to find out the mom’s email address and have emailed her on a few occasions asking her to stop (or tell the brat to stop) using my email address but my notes must be getting ignored since I got another one today. Now I’m no longer being nice and polite.
This really is just the tip of the iceberg… I only started archiving the emails the past few months since it’s become an almost daily issue.
Do these people realize how easy it is for me to log in (via the ‘lost my password’ function) and access their account and all the information? If I was a less honest person I’d have some credit card information for a few people and can really screw them over.
I just… I’m baffled. How stupid do you have to be to consistently give out the wrong email address?
I’m really getting sick and tired of dealing with this. I guess I can ignore them, but then I’ll have a bunch of accounts linked to my email account and I’d rather not do that. So instead, when I get a notice, I try to investigate and reply appropriately.
When an email comes from an actual person I’ll politely ask them to stop emailing me and double-check the email address of the intended recipient. Most times this works, but I’ve run into an idiot or two that doesn’t believe me when I say I’m not who they think I am. Really.
When I have another means of contact (mailing address, etc) I’ll try to send a message via that method. Only happened twice, not sure if it worked.
When there is no means of communication (website accounts, mostly), I’ll email the site help center and ask that the account be canceled. Maybe it’s a bit harsh, but it gets the point across when they try to log in.
Ugh.
