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Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

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Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#211

Post by treeman79 »

boring_twenties wrote: post #199
williamscales wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, since you have the email, you can log in to the Lexus app. Then you could turn off the notifications.

I'm not sure about this but wouldn't that be a felony?

Yes.

99.9% chance no one would care. But people do freak out over this stuff.

Knew one guy that saw that a Bank got hacked on the news. Did an nslookup or similar to check the banks site.

He was arrested the next day and expelled from college for hacking the bank.

Eventually all got cleared up, but screwed up a year of his life

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#212

Post by sixothree »

renewiltord wrote: post #190

Someone registered for Facebook with myname@gmail.com. I'd registered with my.name@gmail.com and when I got the email that I'd added the account I clicked yes before reading (that's a mistake you make at most once) and now that guy has a Facebook account I can't log in to and I can't remove this email from the account and I can't remove the notifications either. Part of the reason is that Facebook verifies you're the…

I am convinced someone with a gmail address similar to mine is causing me issues. I think at one time gmail may have considered dots differently. Because I was getting emails for an account that was clearly not mine. But the email address had a dot and the domain was not .com.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#213

Post by kjhughes »

I think that companies' failure to verify their users' email addresses during signup is a serious problem that goes beyond any dot confusion.

When John Smith signs up for an account using JohnSmith@gmail.com (or John.Smith@gmail.com), and the company trusts John Smith to have provided the email address accurately, three parties are affected: Both John Smiths and the company itself. Yes, verifying email address creates a bit more signup friction, but the consequences of getting it wrong way outweigh that friction for the privacy risk and confusion it causes (unless all the company cares about is a meaningless sign-up metric).

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#214

Post by jeffbee »

sixothree wrote: post #212
renewiltord wrote: post #190

Someone registered for Facebook with myname@gmail.com. I'd registered with my.name@gmail.com and when I got the email that I'd added the account I clicked yes before reading (that's a mistake you make at most once) and now that guy has a Facebook account I can't log in to and I can't remove this email from the account and I can't remove the notifications either. Part of the reason is that Facebook verifies you're the…

I am convinced someone with a gmail address similar to mine is causing me issues. I think at one time gmail may have considered dots differently. Because I was getting emails for an account that was clearly not mine. But the email address had a dot and the domain was not .com.

There's a difference between the address in the "To" field of an email and the "envelope recipient" that actually controls the delivery of the message. The "To" field is never used for delivery, and in fact an email will be delivered perfectly well even if there's nothing in it. That's why you can Bcc everybody and they all still get the message.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#215

Post by jasonv »

x3n0ph3n3 wrote: post #192
jasonv wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I occasionally see a public-ish figure with a website where they publish their email address. This last week, saw someone who advertised their "@cox.com" address. I move way too often to have any kind of confidence in a utility email address like that.

You mean cox.net? I think cox.com is for COX employees. Comcast does the same thing with comcast.com and comcast.net

Possibly, I looked up cox.com and it redirected to https://www.cox.com/residential/home.html so I thought that might be it.

I remember seeing @cox in the email though.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#216

Post by paxys »

Everyone in this thread is replying with instances of receiving emails meant for other people, but dots have nothing to do with that. It's people typing in the wrong email address in a signup page (with dots or without), and the service not verifying it. The latter is what really needs to be fixed.

I personally find this Gmail feature (as well as the ability to append +anything to your email address) extremely useful.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#217

Post by rorykoehler »

boring_twenties wrote: post #149
liquidgecka wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been there. I posted about this before but I own a 5 character common first and last name @gmail.com address. I get misdirected emails _constantly_. Usually I am polite about it and let people know, but sometimes I make a game of it. I was invited to participate in a drum circle with an offer to pay for my flight to which I replied that I would love to join, but they would also have to pay for drum lessons. I got a m…

Unsubscribe, man, I'm jealous. Some dude 2,000 miles away from me has bought a Lexus and now I get regular emails about the status of his vehicle, receipts for all work done to it, and reminders of all maintenance not done to it. For a year and counting. Each email helpfully includes instructions for unsubscribing: First, you log into the Lexus app... I finally got fed up with it and reported them to abuse@.

Just create a filter to auto delete them

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#218

Post by Negitivefrags »

robbyking wrote: post #172

A coworker of mine got an email once containing important scholarship information intended for a high school kid in Florida. He did a little looking online and found the kid's and his parent's actual email addresses and forwarded the email to them. So here's where it gets weird/dumb: the kid replies to my friend and his parents and says, "hey mom, you put the wrong email address on my application, there's no dot in m…

I have a common last name and my email is my first initial and my last name.

I get so much misdirected mail that I don’t even try to help these people.

I hope John gets to his zoom interview for Deputy Chief of Police later today, because I’m not going to tell him about it.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#219

Post by paxys »

rockyj wrote: post #41
tialaramex wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't. You get email because somebody either typo's their similar address or they simply think that's their address when it isn't.

Not sure, I contacted this person, since I got their phone number from one of their emails (e.g. they registered for a hotel). I specifically asked them if they made a typo, according to them they have been using this email for years (maybe they lied but why would they).

They aren't lying, just confused. They probably made a hotmail.com account and assumed it would work with gmail.com.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#220

Post by jeffbee »

cmckn wrote: post #147

I signed up years ago with a dot in my username, before I knew this. Folks can reach me sans dot, but my username still has the dot (so, outgoing mail does too). It bothers me a lot! If there is a Googler reading this with the power to remove the dot from my username, please email me (with or without the dot) :)

You misunderstand the article. Your username has no dots, and dots are allowed but ignored when your username is referenced (when logging in, when receiving messages, etc). Nobody can remove the dots from your username because they aren't there in the first place.

If you just want a different number of dots in your outbound mails, go to the gmail settings and add a new presentation under "Send mail as ..." and set it as the default.

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