I feel sorry for the guy who registered foo@bar.com
Whoever it was, he seems to think that it was an interesting experience. Now the website hosts a bunch of "foo walks into a bar" jokes.
The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account
21–30 of 285 posts
Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account
#22I have one of these, and sometimes I wonder if the stuff I get is really from someone who registered somewhere with my account, or just some highly elaborate phish/spammers' "live account detection" (register for a service using the target's email, then watch for signs of that service being touched, such as the target attempting to unregister itself from the service.)
Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account
#23What if you simply changed all your accounts to use a + variant (e.g. johnsmith+official@gmail.com) and filter out everything sent to you without a + in the address?
I’ve learned that there are a lot of places that auto remove the +official (or whatever you have after the + sign). I assume there is a common email library out there that auto strips this information.
Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account
#24I don't know where else to tell this story, but I got the most amazing piece of spam the other day. According to the sender, an unnamed person had told them to contact me. They allege that over the past 50 years the CIA has been investigating life itself and the sender wanted me to see some bombshell revelation that world governments and large corporations had known about for the last 17 years. I was given a shortened link where I could find out the truth and learn how I play a role in fighting the nebulous yet nefarious powers. In the final part of the call to action I was informed that I better hurry up because unnamed powerful people are going to censor this information from the internet soon.
Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account
#25I was so happy when I was able to get my (exceedingly common) full name as my gmail address. 1.x decades later, I regret it. I get people's medical information, legal documentation, all of it. It is stunning to me the quantity of PII that flows into my inbox daily. Back when it was a trickle, I used to try and contact the people involved to let them know of the issue. It almost never worked out, and I got tired of ge…
My email address most recently was used for some online courses at a .mil address. They took me off their list when I asked, the amount of notifications was pretty incredible. It’s been used for dental records in Oklahoma and to buy heavy machinery in Germany. It’s still obscure enough not to be a real problem, so it’s mostly amusing.
Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account
#26I was so happy when I was able to get my (exceedingly common) full name as my gmail address. 1.x decades later, I regret it. I get people's medical information, legal documentation, all of it. It is stunning to me the quantity of PII that flows into my inbox daily. Back when it was a trickle, I used to try and contact the people involved to let them know of the issue. It almost never worked out, and I got tired of ge…
I share a name with a famous person and my first and last name are also my email address (@ a certain mail service) and I often get receipts for things he’s purchased as well as personal correspondence. When it’s a person I always respond and say that unfortunately I’m not the person they’re looking for just so they know.
Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account
#27Yeah I've got a 6 digit semi-common name Gmail account (from the invite-only days) and the amount of junk I get to it is mind blowing. Not "spam", that gets filtered pretty well by Google these days, but emails specifically sent to me but not for "me" personally like TFA talks about.
100+ emails a week in my primary inbox that are from people signing up to random stuff in my name, basically any/every service you can imagine where I don't already have my own account (large social networks and sites in countries other than me own, online shopping sites, etc).
The other interesting thing is I seem to get a LOT of email for addresses that "almost" match mine, as though Gmail is doing fuzzy-search for addresses? Eg lets say my email is "david@gmail.com", I get dozens of emails a week for "david.17@gmail.com" and "davidab@gmail.com" and stuff like that. I can't explain this one, and everyone I bring it up with says it shouldn't be possible.
It's gotten to the point where I've created a more normal fullname@gmail.com and then do some filters/forwarding on the old one for the more important emails, then just check the old one every couple weeks to see if I missed anything, because it's just not usable anymore with notifications on.
Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account
#28I have one of these accounts (it's a dictionary word), and I can confirm everything the author has said is true. I receive constant onboarding emails I can't opt out of, "so and so thinks you're cute" dating profile notifications, weekly account recovery notifications, all kinds of random crap that was meant for someone else but due to slight misspellings come to me, such as important contracts from lawyers, endless…
Sorry to hear that. As a fellow 'OG' gmail user, I feel your pain, but between the constant 2-3 daily unsubscribe hits and many many Gmail filters it is actually manageable and usable.
Google's "targeted-journalist-level" Advanced Protection Program means I don't have to worry about password resets or account recovery stuff on the account.
Though I have lost track of the number of services I didn't have immediate access to since someone signed up using my email address, and reclaiming it can be a battle sometimes. The Apple ID was interesting - but luckily everyone's "first pet's name" was "Fido"... (Seriously... Please validate your emails everyone!!!)
Often, whenever a real mailing address is included I print out the email and send it in a real letter with a friendly (if just a tad passive-aggressive) note inside. But overall I try to do the right thing for important documents and correspondence.
I do shudder to think how many random accounts are just an email-password-reset away from having access though...
Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account
#29I have one of these accounts (it's a dictionary word), and I can confirm everything the author has said is true. I receive constant onboarding emails I can't opt out of, "so and so thinks you're cute" dating profile notifications, weekly account recovery notifications, all kinds of random crap that was meant for someone else but due to slight misspellings come to me, such as important contracts from lawyers, endless…
OMG some guy has signed me up for EVERYTHING from Home Depot to every dating site, to porn sites to cheating sites. It's absurd. I get daily emails from these services still even with unsubscribes and blocks. They're insessant.
Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account
#30Story time: I never considered my email to be OG as it contains at least two digits after firstLast but I've experienced the same thing. A man very well off man from Texas has assumed my email as his own, shared it with his entire extended family and booked hotels and flights using it.
At some point both his wife has asked me what I thought about a forwarded message from their mortgage broker and his brother in-law asked me my input on buying a 30ft yacht and what to name it.
I always ignore the serious ones for obvious ethical reasons but can't help myself with the more innocent cases. I've found I quite enjoy giving non-commital responses to these emails that won't give up the gig but also don't help them either, things like: "that seems pricey" or "cool! What are you going to name her?", and "she's a beaut!".
I suspect it will go on for a while.