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More Gmail “Squatting” 
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Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:27 pm
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Every so often, I get a spate of emails to my gmail inbox. These messages are either from or to and other person with my name. The general formula seems to be:
first name + last name + @gmail.com = person I am thinking about (or me), and the assumption being that the message will get to the person I am thinking of.

This week, I’ve had an email from an Apple Store in Australia where someone has had an iPhone 3GS replaced after a repeated fault could not be repaired. The messages contained the phone’s serial an IMEI numbers.

I also had a DropBox registration. Someone has bought an HTC phone, and got a 23GB DropBox allowance for that. They used my gmail address, and so guess who gets the emails? Yup - me. It was suggested that I drop a “we are watching you” message on the account, which was funny. But I am generally helpful, so I changed the password, and dropped a note asking him to use a different email address (and gave him the new password so he could make changes via a web browser). That was last night. Today, I checked, and no changes have been made - though there is a phone backup on there now.

Today, another email from a company in Australia. Clearly someone is looking for some kind of real estate or property deal. I’ve been promised contact from that company, but as it’s a no reply@ email address that message came from, there’s not a lot I can do. So I await the eventual emails, with no doubt confidential information in them, to start to filter through. I wonder if he’s the same iPhone person, or another one.

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brataccas wrote:
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Thu Dec 19, 2013 9:45 am
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Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:55 pm
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paulzolo wrote:
Every so often, I get a spate of emails to my gmail inbox. These messages are either from or to and other person with my name. The general formula seems to be:
first name + last name + @gmail.com = person I am thinking about (or me), and the assumption being that the message will get to the person I am thinking of.

This week, I’ve had an email from an Apple Store in Australia where someone has had an iPhone 3GS replaced after a repeated fault could not be repaired. The messages contained the phone’s serial an IMEI numbers.

I also had a DropBox registration. Someone has bought an HTC phone, and got a 23GB DropBox allowance for that. They used my gmail address, and so guess who gets the emails? Yup - me. It was suggested that I drop a “we are watching you” message on the account, which was funny. But I am generally helpful, so I changed the password, and dropped a note asking him to use a different email address (and gave him the new password so he could make changes via a web browser). That was last night. Today, I checked, and no changes have been made - though there is a phone backup on there now.

Today, another email from a company in Australia. Clearly someone is looking for some kind of real estate or property deal. I’ve been promised contact from that company, but as it’s a no reply@ email address that message came from, there’s not a lot I can do. So I await the eventual emails, with no doubt confidential information in them, to start to filter through. I wonder if he’s the same iPhone person, or another one.


Edd had the same problem with someone from australia.
Now I wonder, do google use addressed @gmail.au?


Thu Dec 19, 2013 10:21 am
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Got a good one today. A loan company has been given my gmail address by someone as their guarantor for a loan. Clearly a case of name + @gmail.com = person they were thinking of.

Email contains a loan agreement with the name and address of both parties. Also I expect their log in page will send all password reset requests to me as well. So no email verification processes in place.

Sent the company an email about this. I don't want my email address becoming the repository for repayment requests or associated with this in any way. No reply yet.

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Paul
brataccas wrote:
your posts are just combo chains of funny win

I’m on Twitter, tweeting away... My Photos Random Avatar Explanation


Fri Oct 02, 2015 2:06 pm
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