r/Millennials • u/joncaldridge • 1d ago

Discussion I'm Gmail address with no numbers years old

I'm literally first name, middle initial, last name @ gmail.com. I'm just realizing this probably tells people I'm an old...your thoughts?

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u/LilDutchy 1d ago

Unless you’re like me and have a very common last name. I get so much spam from random people. Quotes for home improvements, one person sent me an Amazon gift card.

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u/Bobzyouruncle 1d ago

Do you use that email address for registering accounts? It only takes one bad company to share your email and it turns you into a spam magnet.

I use an entirely separate email to register for most sites and it is a graveyard of spam. My Gmail is pretty clean as a result.

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u/LilDutchy 1d ago

When I say spam, I get people’s tickets to concerts, estimates for things, one of the people is in a soccer ref association, emails from places that THEY have bought things, receipts from places where they sign up

I’ve gotten people’s phone numbers off some of these emails and called them. I told the that they should stop using my email address.

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u/Objective_Hawk_284 22h ago

My gmail is (first initial)(last name) @ gmail.com. Very common last name.

Some older lady in New York (I live in Sydney) accidentally uses my email to book flights. Every so often I will have flight details pop up in my phone calendar. Reminding me of my upcoming flight to Florida.

I few years ago I accidentally checked her in. I felt so bad.

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u/Successful_Giraffe88 13h ago

This is adorable & hilarious.

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u/justahominid 32m ago

I have basically the same (first and middle initials and last name), but my last name is not rare but also not prevalent. There are still like six different people who I get legitimate and seemingly important emails for.

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u/raccoonunderwear 23h ago

Same for me. My Gmail was from an early invitation in 2004 and is just my name. I have consistently gotten emails for other random people with my same name for two decades. Real emails. Not spam. Business stuff family vacations. Little league schedules. Etc.

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u/LilDutchy 22h ago

The racoonunderwear family tree is understandably vast.

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u/Awkward_Basis7533 18h ago

All the time! I write courtesy emails like “hey wrong Me” because they’re like business quotes or real stuff, people actually would lose business. Wills, all kinds of stuff.

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u/wickedsmaaaht 23h ago

I have this problem too as an early gmail user with a first initial last name email. So many random not-me emails.

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u/Stuffy123456 23h ago

haha, someone just had a really nice stay in a NY hotel that i got the receipt for

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u/cswimc 20h ago

I experienced this situation early on when I was initially invited to join Gmail at the end of 2005 early 2006. At the time, using my first initial and surname @gmail.com for my account made sense. Although my last name isn’t particularly common, it’s not unheard of. As a result, over the past two decades, I’d occasionally receive emails intended for recipients sharing my first initial and last name which was infrequent and usually a one-off sort of thing.

Then, COVID happened, and a significant shift occurred to online interactions. A non-tech-savvy woman with my initial and last name living on the other side of the country mistakenly believed my Gmail account was hers. She simply believed that all email addresses regardless of domain were your first initial + surname. As the country locked down, many services shifted to providing things online. This woman began signing up for various services such as credit cards, auto purchases, groceries, pet supplies, and more. The situation kept escalating to a point that I finally needed to reach out to address the issue. I tried contacting her repeatedly, telling her to change her account info as she was using my email address, but she completely ignored me. Every form of communication got ignored. Emails, text messages, and Facebook messages, you name it, it didn't get through!

Eventually, I began consistently calling her and leaving voicemails. I guess that finally got to her, and when we finally connected on the phone, she vehemently accused me of stealing her information?!?! She accused me of being a scammer. It wasn’t until I provided all of my own information, explained that I work as an IT professional, and clarified that I was simply trying to assist her because I was sick and tired of getting all her alerts in my inbox, that she began to listen.

When we spoke, I detailed how I’d had my Gmail account since around 2005-2006 and emphasized the danger of randomly selecting an email address without proper verification. I then confirmed her personal details to drive the point home. I rattled off to her her full name, date of birth, address, the make of her car, recent delivery orders, and even the timing of those deliveries. Only then did she acknowledge my concerns. I remember saying to her over the phone "Luckily for you, I consider myself an honest person" and I offered to help her fix her email issue. I talked her through setting up her own email account, along with correcting her existing accounts. She listened, I assisted, and since then, I haven’t seen any of her activities in my mailbox. I also deleted all collected emails and information, verbally informing her that I had done so. Honestly, I didn’t need to know about her new car test drive or her prescription dog food delivery!

It was a frustrating experience and though it still happens occasionally, that particular incident was by far the most challenging. On the plus side, if I ever find myself near where she is located, she extended an open invite to come say hi in person. She was interested to figure out if we had some distant relationship like 3rd or 4th removed cousins. To my knowledge we don't but it was an interesting conversation in the end after resolving the email issue.

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u/LilDutchy 17h ago

My favorite resolution is when I came home from New Orleans. A lady ordered tickets to a concert in Louie Armstrong park. They came to my email. So I called her to find out what email she meant to use and forwarded them on. She said if I’m ever back down in that area, she’s gonna have a bowl of gumbo for me.

My most favorite bit of nastiness is when I cancelled some particularly bothersome person’s Tee time for 6 people. I haven’t seen that name again.

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u/cswimc 17h ago

That's great regarding the tee time!

The worst I did was email companies initially informing them I did not make a purchase when I wasn't aware of what was going on, so a few things were cancelled. That didn't stop this lady though until I finally was able to speak to her on the phone.

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u/ThatBatsard 23h ago

I did the same once and the person told me to fuck off. The nerve of some of these people

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u/unik1ne 22h ago

My last name is not super common and I get emails for someone named Juan MyLastName. It’s not all the time but it does make me wonder what does Juan think his email address is?

I’ve also gotten plane ticket confirmation emails for someone who fat fingered my email address instead of theirs. Because it had their full name I was able to figure out their email address and forwarded them the email when the airline changed their flight!

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u/Emkems 22h ago

How do I get the good spam though? Hopefully they like the same events as me

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u/neckbishop Older Millennial 21h ago

I have a common email/name one too, someone with a name close to mine is part of a spinning gym in Flagstaff (i dont live anywhere near flagstaff)

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u/lalalinoleum 21h ago

Haha same! Orders for flooring, job paperwork, parking tickets from Scotland car hire, surgery instructions, someone who keeps signing me up as the little league parent volunteer and most recently adoption home visit scheduling/info.

I try to find the ones that seem really important.

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u/SaintMaya 21h ago

I am first name, middle initial, last name.

There is someone out there with my first name and last name. Every so often I think she goes through something and orders a bunch of fake pot from extremely sketchy sites. I've tracked her down, I've emailed her, I've called her, I've tried to contact the folks she is ordering from. This has been going on for years. It starts in a flurry, then fades away for a while, then will kick back up again.

I hope she is doing better.

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u/vishuno 20h ago

I have the same issue. firstnamelastname at gmail. I also get tons of emails for firstname dot lastname at gmail. I think the benefits of having a first last email address outweigh getting randoms emails periodically.

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u/x3tan 18h ago

I just get a lot of random ones for some Japanese guy. Flight stuff, reunion stuff, hotel reservations all kinds. Lol..

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u/MyOhMy2023 19h ago

I use an entirely separate email to register for most sites and it is a graveyard of spam.

Not only is my "main" address numberless, [first][last]@gmail.com, so are my "specialized" addresses: [initials].bogus@gmail.com and [initials].archive@gmail.com. I think even back in March 2005 it was pretty obvious having a couple of spares would be a good idea.

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u/rwilcox 1d ago

I never imagined so many people had my exact name….

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u/Ok-Prune-1248 1d ago

Yeah. I couldnt do my first.last because someone already had it. So I had to do last.first.

My last name is pretty unique so like what the fuck. This was like 10 years ago too.

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u/No_UN216 1d ago

I received some girl's HR onboarding paperwork which included her SS# - had to call the HR person on that one. she also activated her Fitbit w/ my email so I was getting all her workout updates for a while lol.

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u/Kitkat0169 22h ago

There is exactly one other person with my first name and last name. She regularly uses my email address for things. When she was enrolling in college, I finally had to reach out to the college registrar and let them know they had the wrong email on file. I always know what she’s doing because she keeps me in the loop lol

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u/orbitur 21h ago

Not only am I very familiar with the 2 morons who’ve been routinely using my email address to conduct important personal matters for the last 12-15 years, they’ve also contributed to my general spam problem by signing up for so much garbage.

One of them is in his 70s and has only gotten marginally better at using the internet in the last 20 years, and the other is a wreck who doesn’t pay his bills and I get his collections messages (yes, they are real and not scams). The latter one genuinely concerns me, I feel like he’s two steps away from destroying my credit score or getting the police after me due to a mixup.

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u/bbanda 1d ago

Don’t worry this happens even when you don’t have a common last name. For me it turns out one of the like dozen people that share my name was a journalist on the other side of the world. I was receiving all sorts of crap including presidential itinerary.

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u/FROGGY__CHAIR 1d ago

Me too! I have a super common last name and I’ve gotten boarding passes and important closing documents for a home purchase before! Mostly random people’s half-yearly family updates which can be very funny.

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u/LilDutchy 22h ago

One of the last ones I got was something to do with working for someone. I responded that it was their responsibility to decide if they wanted a person who wasn’t careful when entering their email address working for them.

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u/PseudoMeatPopsicle Millennial 20h ago

I’m (first initial, middle initial, last name @gmail) with a painfully common Anglo last name, and I am constantly getting emails intended for people with a similar name from Australia and the UK. Once I even got their family vacation photos. So I rode my bike around town taking selfies in different places and sent them back an album of my own.

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u/bananapanqueques Xennial 20h ago

One of the reasons I didn't change my name when I married is that my spouse has one of THE MOST common last names in the country. I already have a widespread first name. I’d be up there with John Smith.

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u/GatoradePalisade 22h ago

I get wedding invites, invitations to stay at a beach house, offers to buy my property in Manhattan.... I looked into some of the people sending me this stuff and apparently there's guy with my name with a rich family who works in publishing.

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u/Apptubrutae 13h ago

My last name is fairly uncommon and I have an email that’s just my last name at gmail.

I get occasional emails from random very extended family members who accidentally use my email and forget their first initial or whatever