When you receive an email that was meant for someone else, do you let the sender know that they sent it to the wrong address?

Depends.

A couple times the email was from a lawyer and there were some clearly personal details and settlement documents. I immediately replied to ALL receipients suggesting they had better check their email addresses. (I got a nice thank you).

About a month ago I got an email from Bloomingdales thanking me for purchasing a new coat. Except it was someone else. There was no one to reply to. Because of the distinct name (she was being thanked by name), I located her on Facebook and told her to fix her Bloomingdales account.

Some guy with my same first initial and last name sends money to his son (?) in South America every couple of months. Not worth my trouble to track him down.

There is an accountant in a Toronto with the same name as me, and his gmail address differs by a couple letters. I get mail for him on occasion.

I have replied a couple times, once when it was confirmation of a very nice vacation reservation, and another when it was from a law office. Both senders apologized and thanked me. But they were both Canadian, so of course they were polite.

I am both overly considerate and a dick.

I have a really common name and am pretty used to getting emails that aren’t meant for me.

For years I’d accumulate email addresses of my doppelgängers and would forward emails to them on the off chance that it was theirs. They are usually really nice and appreciative about it.

Then I got into an argument with one of them who insisted that firstname.lastname[at]gmail was their email address. I was like look you moron. All you have to do is send a test email. Gmail doesn’t differentiate between having a period or not. It all goes to my inbox.

Now I’m a major dick about it and have replied to emails saying I wouldn’t recommend renting an apartment to some idiot who doesn’t know their own email address. (I know which one they are by location.)

One time, I replied to an email to let them know they had the wrong email address. But we ended up talking and becoming online friends.

That was maybe nine years ago? I still follow her on Instagram. It’s kind of funny and random.

@raum

“Then I got into an argument with one of them who insisted that firstname.lastname[at]gmail was their email address.”

Were they insisting that you didn’t really receive an email intended for them, because your record of their address didn’t have a period?

It depends on what’s in the email. There’s a young man in Australia with the same name and a similar email address. I get stuff for him 3 or 4 times a year. Sometimes it’s important things, so I always reply informing the sender about the error. They’re always grateful. The Australian Jake just took a trip to the UK, because I got his rail reservations information. Now I’m on the email list for the rail in the UK and get information about trips I could take and such. Now I’m dreaming of England.

Usually, I do. Texts too. I get sent things incorrectly all of the time. My first name is very common.

I do.

@Brian1946 They were insisting that firstname.lastname@gmail.com was their email address. I asked them to stop using it because Google doesn’t care how many periods you stick in it, it still goes to firstnamelastname@gmail.com (mine).

And even though I was clearly staring at their email in my inbox, they were still insisting it was their correct email address.

It defies logic.

Depends on the content and who the sender was.

I had an interesting development. I usually receive email for the young man in Australia from things he’s signed up for, so there’s no way for me to reply. Yesterday, I got an email from an actual person thinking they were sending him information. I was able to reply to them asking them to inform the other Jake that having an email address that merely adds a dot between the first and last name will come to me every time. They thanked me for informing them of the error and promised to explain the situation to their friend Jake. I wonder if I’m going to miss receiving information about the UK rail.