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Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

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Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#161

Post by kevincox »

jeffbee wrote: post #89
judge2020 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been using this for a while - https://github.com/johno/normalize-email

That is a shamefully bad library. There's a million ways this is broken but the worst by far is that it lowercases the local part. Case MUST be preserved in the local part.

It is fine if you want to try to block duplicate emails, but you should always continue to use the original. But yes, it has false positives and false negatives. I don't think I would call it "broken".

But at the end of the day doing this kind of comparison probably raises more questions than it solves.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#162

Post by dave84 »

Spivak wrote: post #74
dave84 wrote: post #58

I spent far too much of my time trying to explain this to Humanity.com’s support after someone created an account using a dotless variant of my email. I didn’t want to freeze the guy out of his account as I imagine he was using it for shift work notifications but in the end they just told me to change the password. Their support repeatedly insisted that gmail was broken and I should contact Google.

Because this is really Google's problem. If someone gives you an email address you're not supposed to touch anything before the '@' and assume that if the inboxes aren't exactly identical then they are separate addresses. Because on some (most) mail servers they will be separate. Humanity is guilty of not actually verifying ownership/control of the inbox before letting the person attach it to their account but they w…

Obviously. My issues is the difficulty in explaining this to tech support even when confronted with evidence.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#163

Post by Kaze404 »

phasetransition wrote: post #158
searchableguy wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't receive any junk mails anymore after switching to my custom domain.

I, too, am 95% better after switching away from first.last@gmail.com to something@firstlast.com and using g-suite on that domain for the last decade or so. I gave up on Gmail for all the same reasons as the stories in this thread.

Fortunately I have a rather unusual last name so I have first@last.dev. It comes with the bonus of having it work for my future children as well :p

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#164

Post by rhn_mk1 »

justusthane wrote: post #77
searchableguy wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't receive any junk mails anymore after switching to my custom domain.

It’s weird, but that’s been my experience too. I switched off Gmail (where I got tons of spam, although most properly caught by the spam filter) several years ago, and have received fewer than 200 spam emails in total since switching. I know this because my new host won’t allow the personalized spam filter to be enabled until you’ve received 200 spam. I’m not at all careful to keep my email address hidden on the inte…

There doesn't seem to be a lot of undirected spam. No one seems to be harvesting git repos, for example.

I keep dedicated email addresses for most purposes, and the two that are getting any are a random mailing list, and the kickstarter address. That one has been caught in a vortex of spam, clearly meaning that kickstarter can't keep their mouths shut about customer emails.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#166

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

dotBen wrote: post #154
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They provided false credentials. The account is yours. I did this once when someone created a Facebook account using my address. I let it go for a year and then did a password reset and deletion. At the time there was no requirement for email verification so the account was fully functional. Again, this is Facebook's responsibility to verify new accounts. A confirmation email link is last century's technology. Moreov…

They provided false credentials. The account is yours. IANAL but I don't think it works like that. Ownership is not the same as control.

Ownership was never established in the first place.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#167

Post by abfan1127 »

Santosh83 wrote: post #6

I have been getting financial emails from several people for many years at my GMail ID. They apparently have given my address but without the dot. But what mystifies me is how these people keep going for years without ever realising they aren't getting account transaction emails (from their banks), notifications of stock trades, even OTP emails etc. How is it possible for people to use these services for years withou…

I get a guy's bank info from the east coast of the US. Recently, he started using Zelle. His Zelle activity was being emailed to me. One of his Zelle recipients used a phone number. I was able to call her, get his phone number and tell him about this issue. He still hasn't updated his email address. I don't get it...

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#168

Post by makr17 »

Santosh83 wrote: post #6

I have been getting financial emails from several people for many years at my GMail ID. They apparently have given my address but without the dot. But what mystifies me is how these people keep going for years without ever realising they aren't getting account transaction emails (from their banks), notifications of stock trades, even OTP emails etc. How is it possible for people to use these services for years withou…

Yep, I live with this too... I thought it luck that I got @gmail.com early on, turns out it was a curse. It's not a _common_ last name, but people with the last name seem to assume it is theirs, or maybe people miss the other letters in addresses they are given and just use the last name?

I used to get periodic emails from an elderly German couple giving me their train itinerary for their upcoming visit. I politely reply that I'm not their cousin, and consequently their cousin probably won't be there at the train station when they arrive. And then six months later it all starts again.

I have what I assume is a distant cousin on the east coast and I get an email with an invoice every time the pest control folks come out to his house to spray. No option to unsubscribe, and I've given up calling the company to let them know they have the wrong address.

There is a fellow in Quebec whose == , and for a while I got monthly emails because someone was trying to wire him money. Again, no option to unsubscribe.

Lately I've started getting emails from universities interested in admitting another distant cousin in Oregon. I'm guessing some college lead-generation service crossed her name with my email (her/our last name). I haven't figured how to handle that one yet, I'm contemplating printing a few out and (snail) mailing them along with a note.

But I've had the address long enough that I don't want to let it go, so I guess this is all a necessary burden......

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#169

Post by sydd »

sriku wrote: post #150

Not only do dots not matter, you can suffix "+ " to your user name before the "@gmail.com" and it will still come to your email address. I actually love this "+" feature and use it a lot .. like send an email to "+bookmark@gmail.com" to bookmark a link, or register with "+nospam" and setup a filter for that address if anyone sends me email on that. This is supported by icloud and fastmail too.

Also a good check if the site has some sloppy implementation. More than once have I seen that my "+" email was not accepted because of invalid characters. I take this as a sign to not trust the site's security too.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#170

Post by deathanatos »

Santosh83 wrote: post #6

I have been getting financial emails from several people for many years at my GMail ID. They apparently have given my address but without the dot. But what mystifies me is how these people keep going for years without ever realising they aren't getting account transaction emails (from their banks), notifications of stock trades, even OTP emails etc. How is it possible for people to use these services for years withou…

> But what mystifies me is how these people keep going for years without ever realising they aren't getting account transaction emails

The inverse happens too! Sallie Mae regularly snail mails me to tell me that the (snail mail) address they have on file for me — the same one they send this notice to — is undeliverable! I get all the normal mail (like account statements), too…

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