Ask Slashdot: What To Do With Other People's Email? 619
vrimj writes "I have a common enough first name / last name combination that I sometimes get other people's email at my firstname.lastname@gmail.com account. It isn't a big deal if it is a person; I let them know, they fix it. The big problem I am having is with companies and websites. These emails are often no-reply, which means I can't send back a quick note. I got someone's credit card bills for three months before I realized there was nothing for it but calling the company (I tried a couple of emails first). Recently I got a notice about someone's kid signing up for a website. I don't have any option but to hit the response button, and tell them that I first have to say I am that kid's parent or guardian. I didn't know where to go from there. Today I get an invoice from a cable company; it is for a different state. I can't reply. I go to the online support, they tell me my only choice is to call the sales office. I gave in for the bank, but I am not talking to someone else's cable company. Is there any way to make emails to an improperly formatted gmail address bounce or do something else obvious? Is there a technical solution I am overlooking. I doesn't happen that often but it is an increasing PITA with no-reply email addresses. I hate just setting up a filter because that cuts off these other people who made a typo or had someone not enter something correctly, but it is looking like the best choice. It isn't spam, but it isn't my meat."
Re:You're approaching it all wrong. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Seconded, delete it. Don't look, fix, or help (Score:5, Interesting)
A sue-happy world. .co.uk address, but they sent it to .com instead. I replied that they had the wrong address, and if they could please update it so I didn't get their e-mail, I would appreciate it.
About a decade ago, long before this became a common problem, I got an e-mail meant for someone at a
The result was that I got a scathing reply back, implying that I was a criminal, and that this would be reported to the police.
The problem is that those who can't even be bothered to enter a correct e-mail address aren't going to bother reading the technical details, nor figuring out what or where the problem is, and will likely draw the conclusion that you somehow stole their e-mail.
I'm tempted to automatically put all e-mails to my domain that isn't for me on a web page, for public consumption. While most of them are obviously spam, some appear to be quite, um, interesting if you have odd kinks. As long as I announce this as a public service, would I be in my rights to do so?
Used to be an issue, but not so much today (Score:5, Interesting)
Back before rising spam levels made this unworkable, I used to have a catchall address for my domains. One of my domains in .com has the same name as a church school in ".co.uk". At the beginning of each term, I'd get some messages addressed to students who hadn't figured out the address yet, and I'd send back a canned reply.
One day I got a message titled "I am going to kill you tonight". This was a bit worrisome. Especially since my site predicted which dot-coms were going to go bust, based on their financials, and I routinely got threats. But those threats were usually from corporate lawyers and CFOs, and threatened litigation. After reading the message, though, it was clear it was aimed at some kid at the school.
This was shortly after Columbine, and it said tonight", so I felt I had to do something. I was able to get hold of someone at the school by phone, and they woke up the headmistress (8 hour time difference) and put her on the line. I read her the text of the message, and she immediately knew who it was. She told me it was a 12 year old kid, and the matter would be taken care of.
It's a good thing it was a UK school. In the US, a SWAT team probably would have been sent in.
Re:Delete it (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a personal domain which has the same problem. My domain name is a four letter latin word (not wanting to slashdot my poor server, I won't mention the name). There's a Belgian rock band with the same name, a video game with a similar name, and at least one medical ward in a Boston hospital which uses a typographical variation.
I used to be inundated with (a) Flemish grunge fans who were indignant that I had "stolen" the name of "their" band's website (fans, not the band itself), (b) people asking/demanding help in the game, and (c) confidential reports from the hospital. And when I say inundated, I mean I was getting between 3,000 and 7,000 spam/misdirected email a day. Probably 50 of those a day were misdirected emails that weren't flagged as spam.
Ten years ago, I used to send back a boilerplate "this isn't the web site you're looking for" response to these guys (I set up a script in the Bat mailer I was using at the time). The results I got for this were:
a) the grungers demanded I give "back" my domain to their favourite band;
b) the gamers told me "I'll never buy another one of your effing games again"; and, for the win
c) the hospital types said "you have illegally intercepted confidential medical data, we're going to sue you into the ground"
To be fair, there were a number of "oops, sorry, thought you were the other guys" apologies (and one rambling email in Portuguese from a woman who wanted to know if she should marry her boyfriend whom she didn't love, and should wait for Mr. Right instead)
Nothing ever came from it, other than my deciding to say the hell with it. Most of it was nonsense, but it could easily become a time suck.
More recently, I've started getting "confirmations" from companies that my application has been pre-approved. This isn't spam, it's actually some bozo using my email address, despite giving different address/phone information when applying. The fact that he's getting these pre-approvals says something about the approval process, to be sure. I called the first few, thinking maybe my account had been hacked, but it's just someone else (it's always the same address he gives) who doesn't seem to know his own email address.
Re:You're approaching it all wrong. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:You're approaching it all wrong. (Score:5, Interesting)
Still, after some time the barrage of email gets pretty annoying. Some of them are downright incoherent until I get the context of knowing they think they're talking to a music venue. Some woman started up about this "kid and bear show" one day that took three rereads to convince myself it wasn't spam for weird pornography. And when the place got shut down for a few months I ended up on the mailing list with a bunch of riotous music-loving Australians who wanted to save that other business.
On a good day I settle for polite self-promotion, on a bad day I lean towards snippy sarcasm about spelling, and I'm waiting for a really bad day to rip them a new one for failing to get either of the hemispheres correct.