freefutcoins.1

This afternoon I got an email about an Instagram account created with my email address.  To my surprise, it was about soccer rather than being the selfie repository of a teenage girl.  The subject of the account is money in the video game FIFA 2015.  The kid appears to have lots of in game currency and is using the account to give it to other online players.

I disconnected my email address and then did a password reset.  The password reset was then sent to a different address rather than one generated by the service.

Assurant.com

Today I got an email that said that a claim had been approved on a replacement phone:

Dear emily _______,

Good news! Your Premium Handset Protection* claim was approved on 01/27/2015. You will be notified when your replacement device has been shipped.

Thank you for the opportunity to assist you!

Regards,

Assurant Solutions

Claims Team I called the phone number listed on the claim and asked for Emily.   It was a wrong number.  I then called Assurant and spoke to a customer service representative.   He said that I was the first person to call in and report a wrong email address and he was very grateful for my honesty.   He says that the owner of the phone would need to contact them about the claim.   Seeing that the email address and phone number are wrong, I hope that the replacement phone at least shipped to the right physical address. I do have a Fedex tracking number now.   I suppose I can check.

EmiiGonzales14

This Twitter account was created last summer and I disconnected my email address.   Emily must have put it back.  This is her profile picture:

It popped up again because someone tagged her in a tweet.   I have once again removed my email address.  She has nearly 400 tweets, so closing her account would be mean.   I'll just have to see if she sends anything else.

13emmyisbest

I started getting email for this Instagram account on January 10 at around 1 am.  This is Emily's picture:

I disconnected my email address from her account 4 times.   Each time, she reattaches it.   The final time, I reset the password.  I now have her cell phone number.  I installed Instagram on my phone and uploaded the following image:

Then I disassociated my email from the account and requested a password reset for her.   If she adds me again, I will just close the account.  You'd think that it wouldn't be that difficult of a thing to learn.

I will do something about it.

My name is Emily and I have stumbled upon an unusual hobby.   Years ago, I acquired an email address with my full name while the service was in beta test.  This email address has no additional characters.  Since that time, I have received dozens upon dozens of emails intended for other people who just happen to share my name.  They forget that their email address may have additional characters such as a middle initial or numbers.  Instead they use mine.

I get everything including online loyalty program mail, family picture albums, social media accounts, and other people's receipts.  NPR had an article last September about these email doppelgangers.  I'm really glad that I'm not alone with this problem.

If it's something more frivolous, say a online music or social media account, I do one of three things: 1. Unsubscribe from the mailing list. 2. Disassociate my email address from the account.  3. Close the account.   Sometimes I contact the company and get my email address blocked from further use in their system.

I've also gotten important medical appointment reminders and invitations for job interviews for other people.   I could seriously mess up someone's life if I didn't try to get people pointed in the right direction.

I have kept a file of all the information on these presumptive owners of my email address since August of 2013.  It's quite a large file with a great deal of diversity of content and locations.  The other Emilys live everywhere from California to Uruguay.

Knowing your own email address is an important life skill. I just help people learn this lesson.   I hope you will find these writings entertaining and informative.  If you have experienced this phenomena, feel free to leave a comment.