alt Hacker News> I’ve wondered if this person has access to any of my information?
No. They have just told someone your email address and that someone has sent you stuff. Anyone can do that, if they dream up your email address. People having the same name are a lot more likely to do that.
Happened to me as well. I was the first one of the 50 people or so carrying my name to register "first[.][email protected]" back in 2004. At least two of my namesakes have since mistakenly used my email address. Some people just aren't very detail-oriented.
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I still control my first name @gmail.com from very early on, but have never been able to put it to use because of the relentless torrent of misdelivered email.
Maybe their email is [email protected], and people occasionally misremember your address and send your correspondence to them. In that case, yes.
More likely their email address is [email protected] or [email protected] though, in which cases the types of mistakes people make are likely asymmetric.
I bet this is it.
I have a [email protected], and my namesake has [email protected] (with middle initial, and I think they originally created the GMail username without periods).
So, I sometimes receive emails intended for him, by people who saw firstmlastname and think it's firstlastname.
Maybe around a hundred emails so far, over the years.
I've gotten good at telling at a glance that an email is for him, without reading it, and forwarding and deleting.
Fortunately, my namesake is a very accomplished good-guy, so I'm happy to help.