Ask HN: How do I stop someone thinking my email is theirs

3 points by andyexeter 3 years ago | 9 comments

My email is <surname>.<forename>@<provider.tld>, but the provider also routes any part before the @ missing certain punctuation to me.

For a few years now, someone with the same name as me has been signing up for online services using <surname><forename>@<provider.tld>. It’s always been a minor annoyance but over the years I have typically gone with an unsubscribe/delete and forget approach.

However, said imposter has now signed up for and Apple ID using this email address and I keep getting spammed with “Verify your email address” emails - presumably because they are re-sending them after they don’t reach “their” inbox.

How can I let the imposter know they’re using the wrong email address? Why would they go this long (circa 5 years) thinking my email address belongs to them?

I’m also a little concerned that this might affect my own Apple ID which is linked to my primary email address.

andrewfromx 3 years ago |

you just need a filter to mark these messages as read and skip your inbox. out of sight out of mind. There's no way to stop spam but there is always a way to not see it.

andyexeter 3 years ago | |

There is unfortunately a risk of false positives with this approach - I might want to use the <surname><forename> variation myself for certain things and I should be able to do that.

andrewfromx 3 years ago | | |

then you have to get creative with the filter. Filter on the to and the subject line and content etc.

slater 3 years ago |

i have a similar situation. i've "known" this guy for ~10 years now, all the way from him signing up on a random dating site, to the present where I'm getting e-mails about his mortgage, and school info e-mails regarding his kids :D

I used to respond to the ones that were obviously from a real person, imploring them to tell him he keeps getting his e-mail wrong, but no dice, so now i just respond "wrong e-mail address" and hope that sorts it out.

JamesVI 3 years ago | |

"i've "known" this guy for ~10 years now"

Ha. I have one of those too. His wife keeps getting it wrong too, so I get emails asking my opinion on various purchases/kitchen renovations. I used to reply "wrong email address", now I just give my opinion.

I hope he likes the kitchen counters he "agreed" to.

andyexeter 3 years ago | |

I go with the “wrong email address” replies when I can too, but for bigger orgs sending automated emails like Apple in this case that doesn’t work.

I’m wondering whether to look through all the attachments I’ve received over the years for a phone number and maybe try to call them but I’m not sure how that would go down.

andrewfromx 3 years ago | |

re: "were obviously from a real person" i question how you can know that these days!

I always assume if it invokes that human emotion of "oh, help this poor guy out and reply" it's a trap!

slater 3 years ago | | |

For sure, but what i mean is, e-mails from e.g. james.whatever@bigbankcorp.com, with e-mail sig of James Whatever, Senior Analyst, Big Bank Corp, etc. and the usual boatload of (allegedly not-legally-binding) legal disclaimers etc.