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0 pointsmikeash8y ago0 comments

I apparently have a somewhat common name, and so my Gmail account first.last@gmail.com gets a fair amount of misdirected email due to idiots with a similar address. (As best I can tell, most of them have something like first.last42@gmail.com and forget the number.)

Good companies will require verification before sending anything else. Those I can ignore and they’ll go away. For the others, I make a good faith effort to unsubscribe, but a small one. They get about ten seconds for me to find the unsubscribe link, otherwise they get reported as spam. I’ve had some which won’t let me unsubscribe unless I log in to the corresponding account, which of course I can’t do.

Just remember that this stuff is spam. You’re not abusing a tool to your advantage, you’re using it the way it’s supposed to be used. Spam doesn’t have to be knockoff viagra or whatever.

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5 comments · 3 top-level

bitexploder8y ago· 2 in thread

I have a very common first.last@gmail.com (I wonder who has that literal address? Poor person.). The things I have gotten by accident are amazing. Highly sensitive loan applications, retirement accounts, travel documents, even a thread for a consultant doing highly sensitive plant improvements to a GM plant complete with access to gigs of plant info docs, process management and other proprietary information (vehicle design things). I have no idea, but these guys should be glad I an a benevolent entity :)

AdmiralAsshat8y ago

I'm perplexed as to how you even got first.last@gmail.com, because I'm pretty sure Gmail disregards the dot and will send anything with your address to firstlast@gmail.com[0].

That's actually the likely source of the confusion, as my (example) email might be giraffe@gmail.com while the serial offender is likely g.iraffe@gmail.com (based on the salutation in the message).

[0]http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-dot-in-your-gmail-add...

bitexploder8y ago

Well, yeah, it is technically just firstlast@gmail.com, I am just used to the dot :)

So, any combination of dots in there works. I have just had it since the Gmail beta. And Insert both with and without the dot as mistaken deliveries.

jnxx8y ago

> For the others, I make a good faith effort to unsubscribe, but a small one. They get about ten seconds for me to find the unsubscribe link, otherwise they get reported as spam.

I do not have any more the patience for that. If I am actually a customer of the company, I might use the unsubscribe link. If not, in my email program (claws-mail) it is two clicks to automatically delete all mails from that address. I get regularly mails from spammy recruiters who obviously scrape CVs and belong in this category. To not waste bandwidth, I put black-listed addresses also into a blacklist which is used on the server side by mail email provider. It would be neat if email clients did support that feature.

Also, there are definitely large organisations which when you unsubscribe from their list, they will simply send spam from dozens of other mail addresses. IEEE is the worst I've seen.

buckminster8y ago

I'm in the same boat. People have used my gmail address when opening bank accounts, buying cars and even buying apartments! It has an upside though. If you try to map my email address to a real identity you get a great many "verified" wrong answers.

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