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Occasionally USPS sends me pictures of other people's mail

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Re: Occasionally USPS sends me pictures of other people's mail

#21

Post by saghm »

firesteelrain wrote: post #17
1a527dd5 wrote: post #10

I have a version of this; I have the email {{popular-asian-surname}}@gmail.com and I've seen _everything_. I've had many many bank statements from India. I've had someone in California order a brand new BMW and got the details for collection. I've had paypal invoices and statements (this is one funny because they refuse to action the delink). I used to reach out and tell them I didn't sign up for their service. But h…

I had someone send me their entire credit report. Luckily I am not a scammer and I deleted it for them. They sent me an Amazon gift card to thank me for not stealing their PII. I get DoorDash order notifications, Uber notifications, etc I am not sure how they signed up with my email as I never got a sign up notification Part of this also is because email / gmail is not case sensitive Jsmith@gmail.com is the same as j…

Gmail also parses out periods in the address. j.smith@gmail.com will go to the same place as `jsmith@gmail.com`.

Re: Occasionally USPS sends me pictures of other people's mail

#22

Post by sponaugle »

jorts wrote: post #18
1a527dd5 wrote: post #10

I have a version of this; I have the email {{popular-asian-surname}}@gmail.com and I've seen _everything_. I've had many many bank statements from India. I've had someone in California order a brand new BMW and got the details for collection. I've had paypal invoices and statements (this is one funny because they refuse to action the delink). I used to reach out and tell them I didn't sign up for their service. But h…

Same for me... I have a relatively obscure last name, but that's my Gmail address. I receive numerous random emails intended for other individuals with a similar name.

Indeed - There are not that many jeff sponaugle's, but I seem to get the email for the others from time to time!

Re: Occasionally USPS sends me pictures of other people's mail

#23

Post by petesergeant »

1a527dd5 wrote: post #10

I have a version of this; I have the email {{popular-asian-surname}}@gmail.com and I've seen _everything_. I've had many many bank statements from India. I've had someone in California order a brand new BMW and got the details for collection. I've had paypal invoices and statements (this is one funny because they refuse to action the delink). I used to reach out and tell them I didn't sign up for their service. But h…

> The best one I had was a dating site in Canada, I got it while sat next to me partner.

The plausible deniability this email address gives you is remarkable

Re: Occasionally USPS sends me pictures of other people's mail

#27

Post by oarla »

7e wrote: post #11

You have it easy! Occasionally USPS delivers me other people's mail!

This is an epidemic in my community. At least twice a month I walk over to my neighbors and deliver their mail left in my mailbox. They do the same to me. We’ve complained to the local post office, but they’re dealing with staffing issues and can’t guarantee anything.

I feel it’s a major invasion of privacy. I don’t want to know stuff about my neighbors like who they bank with, have student loans with or which doctors they go to. They also find out those things about me. But not much we can do about it.

Re: Occasionally USPS sends me pictures of other people's mail

#28

Post by nottorp »

1a527dd5 wrote: post #10

I have a version of this; I have the email {{popular-asian-surname}}@gmail.com and I've seen _everything_. I've had many many bank statements from India. I've had someone in California order a brand new BMW and got the details for collection. I've had paypal invoices and statements (this is one funny because they refuse to action the delink). I used to reach out and tell them I didn't sign up for their service. But h…

Everyone I know that made an email on the major free providers using just a common surname (and maybe initial) in some language are getting other people's communications.

It's like regular people don't use email unless forced to and forget what it is when giving it out...

Re: Occasionally USPS sends me pictures of other people's mail

#29

Post by duped »

garciasn wrote: post #6

I get this semi-frequently too; but, the biggest problems for me w/this system are: 1. I get the pictures DAYS before the actual mail (weekends ignored). Why?! 2. I sometimes don't get pictures of the mail at all, particularly mail that's not bulk mail--it's from individual to individual. I could give a flying fuck that I'm going to be getting 5 advertisements in a few days. I want to know when I'm getting ACTUAL mai…

So the way that this works has nothing to do with user experience. A long while ago, USPS automated the mail sorting at their distribution centers by taking photos of the mail. Anything that could be sorted automatically was, anything that fails falls back to humans to sort.

Someone over at USPS had the brilliant idea to save the photos they were taking to sort the mail anyway and email it to people at the addresses that the mail was being sorted to, and to do it for free.

It's basically repurposing a critical piece of infrastructure to give you a little QoL bonus with your mail, and we should be really thankful anyone thought to do it instead of complaining about what's lacking. Especially when policymakers use every attempt to defund it so they can get their ultimate goal of privatizing mail and package delivery.

Re: Occasionally USPS sends me pictures of other people's mail

#30

Post by pwg »

duxup wrote: post #2

I wonder he he also receives that mail or was going to but someone caught it? My post office for a good year was horrendous about delivering me my neighbor's mail. I felt like a Jr. Mail Carrier in training ;) Last few years they've been SPOT on. I tried informed delivery but honestly it's more of a hassle for me as my wife says "this should have arrived today" and of course it doesn't so she thinks it's stolen and .…

> it's more of a hassle for me as my wife says "this should have arrived today"

Same here (minus the "stolen" part). Wife overlooks the disclaimer on the page saying "delivery soon" and assumes that today's photos should be of today's deliveries. Continually pointing that fact out has not (yet) dissuaded her from this belief of "today's photos equal today's deliveries"

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