Know Your E-mail Address

Christopher Smith — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 12:29:00 +0000

I’ve been on the Internet a long time. As a consequence, I have some very short (i.e. not chris13123124@yahoo.com) e-mail addresses on places like Yahoo Mail and Gmail (well, in the case of Gmail it’s because I have friends who worked there when Gmail came online for the first time). Some people think this is cool. In practice, it turns out to be a PITA, by function of incredibly stupid people who don’t know their own e-mail address. I’m sorry folks, but it is the 21st century. If you don’t know what your e-mail address is you shouldn’t be on the Internet. More importantly, you shouldn’t be guessing by putting in my e-mail address instead.

This phenomenon seems to have really become a lot worse in the last couple of years, probably because e-mail has become so mainstream that friends and company use your e-mail address more than they use your phone number. I have tried, repeatedly, to send people e-mails clarifying that someone has given them the wrong address, but more often than not, it simply results in more confusion.

Over the last couple of years, I have been signed up for Kodak’s photo repository (which apparently fails to collect any contact information beyond an e-mail address and fails to validate that e-mail address before letting you upload pictures). I’ve been able to see some lovely wedding photos and what I suspect are some honeymoon photos (I didn’t want to see that!) that were not intended for the general public. I’ve been signed up for free Microsoft Office trials. I’ve been put on to mailing lists for military personnel in Georgia. I’ve been contacted by domain registrars about configuration updates to various domain names. I’ve been put on three different PTA mail lists. I’ve received shipping notices and order invoices from Dell and HP, going to people all over the US as well as a Christian missionary group in Texas that proselytizes by teaching English. I’ve received multiple correspondences about wedding and honeymoon plans (I’m guessing related to the photos) from planners, hotels, restaurants, and… Victoria’s Secret (really, I didn’t want to know). I’ve received real billing notices from the BofA, with lots of account information included. The worst part is that I’ve been put on so many spammer’s lists it is insane (the overlap between people who don’t know their own e-mail address and people who don’t recognize phishing scams is… significant).

I have tried to be nice about this. I’ve carefully unsubscribed or disabled most of the stuff set up with my e-mail address. I’ve tried to contact the senders and recipients of e-mails to let them know that this is the wrong e-mail address. I’ve tried looking up whatever contact info is available to track people down. I haven’t actually sent snail mail, but that is what I’m going to do next.

No more Mr. Nice Guy. I’m going to go public. If you still don’t get it, I’m going to start signing people up for obnoxious services as retribution. Today’s latest is:

Carolyn Smith 34991 Hamilton Ct. Farmington Hills MI 48334

Carolyn claims to work for a company called ACN. I tried looking up a phone number for that address, but apparently there is none. I’ll be sending snail mail, but I suspect it is going to take weeks for that to work. Carolyn, your e-mail address on gmail is NOT what you think it is. If you’ve been wondering why you haven’t obtained your free Microsoft Office trials as well as all the Microsoft junk mail you’ve signed up for, this is the reason. I’ve disabled the subscription multiple times, but you seem to keep signing me up. Please, take a look at what your e-mail address is. If anyone reads this thinks they know Carolyn, please contact her and tell her to send an e-mail to what she thinks is her e-mail address. Then maybe we can sort this all out.

And finally, as a PSA for all those folks managing mail lists and using e-mail addresses for usernames. Please, do yourself and your customers a favour and verify e-mail addresses before signing them up.

Xblog: Know Your E-mail Address

Know Your E-mail Address