The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account • Hacker News Board

Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account

#151

Post by Nextgrid » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 8:57 AM UTC

geocrasher wrote: post #3

I am really glad that I do not have one of these email accounts. While I cannot speak firsthand of some of the shenanigans that are mentioned in the article, I have worked in the web hosting industry for 20 years. I have seen some of the horrible security practices in use by customers and, surprisingly, people in the industry. I've seen many people locked out of their hosting accounts because they have their primary…

Years ago I considered setting up a hosting company. This is part of the reason why I didn't go through with it - dealing with idiots locking themselves out and/or letting their website get compromised & send spam/host inappropriate content wasn't worth it even though the technical side looked pretty straightforward and a fun challenge.

Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account

#152

Post by ben_w » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 8:59 AM UTC

dahdum wrote: post #66

I get a steady flow of misdirected email for UK and SoCal namefellows, going on 10 years now. SoCal guy got roped into Scientology but the UK fellow has had a stellar military career, at least according to the intros I’ve seen. The most interesting ones were about a trial where the defendants sold substandard steel to the military. I got added to the thread with their lawyers discussing strategy and sending attachmen…

Someone I used to know had the Lawyer experience too, only the namesake was a high ranking UK banker and the topic was the late-2000s financial crisis.

Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account

#153

Post by Nextgrid » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:01 AM UTC

Polylactic_acid wrote: post #9

Its pretty ridiculous that web services still allow you to sign up without verifying your email.

> still allow you

We're actually moving in the opposite direction now. A lot of services nowadays became less strict in what they require to open an account (for the sake of growth and engagement) compared to a decade ago.

Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account

#154

Post by yaccz » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:06 AM UTC

shocks wrote: post #127

cik wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, I feel your pain. One of my emails is @ .com. This fails verification on so many websites it's just comical. I then figured on making a @ .com. Turns out folks mostly validate .com in my experience, which I assume is because of good old mail.com. It's frustrating.

My email address is *@example.tld Fails a lot of validations because ‘example’ can’t possible by right eh?!

Some second level example addresses are actually reserved and not for use. See rfc 2606.

Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account

#155

Post by croon » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:06 AM UTC

brazzy wrote: post #150

Oh god yes. I have a 6 character pronouncable gmail address as my main email address. Some highlights: * Several people from (I think) Mexico City have sent me requests in Spanish asking for medical prescriptions, including photos of their current medication. * I started receiving receipts for an Italian parking fee app. After I contacted their support about the problem, I received an email addressed to their user as…

I have my 6 letter surname at gmail as well, and I've had this issue for decades. Everything from wedding invitations to banking to schools etc.

I have answered some helpfully if I had the time, but mostly ignored them and put them in a folder as "mail for others".

One in particular, some kid in Arizona who shares my last name has signed up for everything from golf to Epic Games. I found him on facebook and friended (since we shared our last name) and politely asked him if he could try to not use my email for things. He told me it was his, called me a creep and blocked me.

It's kind of hilarious how many people insist the email I (or Google I suppose) own is also theirs, despite the technical impossibility of that scenario. The same has happened with my phone number.

Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account

#156

Post by mywacaday » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:07 AM UTC

I got my gmail account in Sept 2004 and manged to get my my relatively common name in my country firstname.lastname@gmail.com I have been asked to review CVs for Doctors, received invoices for companies, received somebodies power bill on a regular basis even after advising the company its not me and quiet a few emails f some guy touring Australia who spent the whole time giving people the wrong email address. I had a nice conversation with a friend of his explaining that I wasn't really him pulling a prank.

Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account

#157

Post by wiradikusuma » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:09 AM UTC

Not only username, domain names also. I have many @ShortEnglishWord.id and from time to time I receive emails related to the domain. salad.id -> people want to buy salad, @sweets.id, @blazer, bonsai, etc you get the idea.

Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account

#158

Post by chousuke » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:11 AM UTC

murrayb wrote: post #124

wyclif wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My main email address is @gmail.com. My surname is not a very common one, yet I still experience many of the side effects described here. I've had this account since the first day Gmail was available to the public, April 1st 2004—I was invited by a friend who worked for Google at the time. Back then, I never considered this address an "OG" address, but then around 2012 I noticed something funny. I volunteered to do s…

I have a firstname.lastname Gmail account. Neither frst or last are particularly common. There are various people around the planet who hand out my address as there own, I get invoices on a regular basis but also correspondence from real estate agents and legal correspondence. Most recently I spam listed a Canadian telco because some gentleman in Canada is joyfully handing out my address. On the other hand I very rar…

It can also be that instead of people giving your Gmail address as their own, the receiver ignores the domain and just assumes that it's @gmail.com. I've had that happen a couple times.

People also get very confused about + in addresses.

Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account

#159

Post by mywacaday » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:12 AM UTC

croon wrote: post #155

brazzy wrote: post #150

Oh god yes. I have a 6 character pronouncable gmail address as my main email address. Some highlights: * Several people from (I think) Mexico City have sent me requests in Spanish asking for medical prescriptions, including photos of their current medication. * I started receiving receipts for an Italian parking fee app. After I contacted their support about the problem, I received an email addressed to their user as…

I have my 6 letter surname at gmail as well, and I've had this issue for decades. Everything from wedding invitations to banking to schools etc. I have answered some helpfully if I had the time, but mostly ignored them and put them in a folder as "mail for others". One in particular, some kid in Arizona who shares my last name has signed up for everything from golf to Epic Games. I found him on facebook and friended…

Please tell me you shut down a few of his "accounts"

Re: The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account

#160

Post by kzrdude » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 9:22 AM UTC

I usually just vigorously unsubscribe. In the rare case it hasn't been possible, I've deleted the account that someone created with my email. To stop the messages coming in.