So my name, as we once discussed a loooong time ago, is not uncommon. I am not named “Moon Unit” or “Pilot Inspektor” or “Maddox/Pax/Knox/Maalox”. I have a normal, common, everyday name. Which is fine. This post is not about complaining about being one of 3 Emilys in my elementary school classes or anything. (Although that did play a role in my decision to keep my name when I got married- since I’d always been called Emilylastname all in a rush to distinguish me from the other Emilys, it was hard to imagine giving up the last name part of it.)
No, this is a post about what happens when someone confuses you for another person who shares your name.
I got in on the gmail game pretty early, as we had friends who were working for the company and doling out invites to gmail back when you still needed invites. As a result, I was lucky enough to get MyfirstnameMylastname@gmail.com as my gmail address. And now, as a result of that, I get email for pretty much every Myfirstname Mylastname in the universe whose friends don’t know their email address and just make a guess.
For a while I was getting emails for a Myfirstname Mylastname who was a bridesmaid in someone’s wedding, and despite my repeated attempts to tell the bride “I’m pretty sure I’m not in your wedding because I’ve never met you, and by the way, requiring your bridesmaids to get fake nails for the occasion is TOTALLY RIDICULOUS,” I never got off that list. (Most recent missive: “honeymoon pics for everyone!!!”)
Normally, I don’t realize it’s come to the wrong person until after I’ve opened it, so I just reply to the email briefly, saying “I think you have the wrong Myfirstname Mylastname, hope you’re able to find a correct email address for the intended recipient!”
But today was a first: today, I got an email for Myfirstname Mylastname with the subject line: Thank you for joining [Name of Small Winery's] Wine of the month club! Password enclosed!
PASSWORD ENCLOSED? You mean, I could, if I wanted to, go into this person’s wine club account, change her addy, and whee, free wine!
Except obviously I’m not going to do that. In fact, I’m so freaked out by the idea of accidentally seeing someone else’s password that I’m afraid to open the email. I mean, I know opening someone’s U.S. Mail is a crime, and while email is perhaps not so serious it nonetheless seems ill-advised to be opening other people’s private stuff.
So which is worse: allowing the wine club to continue thinking they have the correct email address and potentially depriving the real purchaser of the wine from her online access to her wine club account, or opening the email with the password enclosed and replying back to tell the wine club people that they have the wrong person?
That is weird. It’s almost like someone used your email address to sign up for this club, because how else would the wine place have responded to them?
Maybe someone signed YOU up for it? Maybe? Free wine!
The first thing is worse. Open the email and reply. It’s really not a big deal.
Also, I also get called Firstnamelastname a lot and it will definitely be weird when I change my last name. Also firstnamenewlastname is no longer available at gmail in any form, with or without a dot, whether the first name is first or the last. And the new name is not that common! I do not believe that there are already FOUR other people out there with my name who’ve taken those gmail addresses. I think some spammer stole them. I also think that gmail should allow underscores in their email addresses.
i’d write the winery back. i mean, YOU know you’re not going to break into their wine account, and i’d feel worse potentially accidentally depriving someone of their wine.
but.. uh, yeah, someone else DIDN’T KNOW THEIR OWN EMAIL ADDRESS and accidentally used yours when they signed up…?
You know what I’d do? Start forwarding each wrongly addressed email to the last person who sent a wrongly addressed email. You know, start messing with people’s heads. Might turn into a fun game with very fulfilling results.
Definitely open the email… I’d be very sad if wine that was supposed to arrive magically on my doorstep never arrived. I sort of made email friends with the girl who has the opposite email as me when I kept getting her emails. It was kind of exciting because she lives in Australia.
ps. I’m in chicago now… happy hour next week?
My name is uncommon, but I get email for another person who has my same last name and my first initial. Furthermore, I get stuff like the wine email, where surely SHE must have used that address. I got one that confirmed my membership in a family-tree site. I could have messed up her whole lineage!
Да, здорово.