I'm a bit skeptical Google ever treated `fname.lname@gmail.com` and `fnamelname@gmail.com` as different accounts.
I registered the `fname.lname` version very early on (before GMail was freely available), and while I do sometimes get emails sent to the `fnamelname` variant, which is consistent with someone having signed up with that variant, but is also consistent with someone just forgetting what their email address is (eg, they meant to type `fnamelname@hotmail.com`, or `fnamejlname`, or whatever). Especially since the mixups are very, veyr rare.
I can't rule out some weird collection of google bugs, but Occam's Razor suggests it's just an occasional typo. Especially until someone pulls up two screenshots of Google accounts showing colliding addresses.
Lazare
My Gmail account is old enough that I needed a beta invite from a cooler friend. As a cool kid myself, I registered a name full of punctuation. For decades Google has treated the punctuated and unpunctuated addresses as one and the same. There is no distinct Google account that can be access via one username or the other.
dublinben
Both this post and the quoted one seem to be confused. Adding periods to a Gmail address never ever, since day one, went to a different mailbox.
I would like to see some of the evidence that two different people are logging in to accounts that are only different by periods.
smallerize
As others said, I also believe this post to be wrong. There is simply no evidence of the double account thing. But as we are all now talking about incorrect gmail mails…
I paid 1.4€ or something on ebay back then for an invite and got a very common first.last@gmail.com, I’ve gotten everything, invoices, investment information, medical data, private photos, etc., though it has been getting better in the last few years, besides boring transactional mails and account recovery etc, I now only get such mails once or twice a year, used to be a monthly occurrence. Probably helped that I always wrote back and corrected those people ;)
Semaphor
I’ve been using Gmail since the first day it became available back in April 2004. I have firstname@gmail.com. My name is two syllables, and I specifically remember using another invite to try to register first.name@gmail.com. Google wouldn’t let me because it said the address was already registered.
I’m pretty sure the ignore the dot rule has always been there.
Kurd
As others said, this post is wrong. I’m another owner of first.last/firstlast since 2004. There was never a period where Google got the dots wrong.
People will forget their middle initial in their email (or others won’t notice it), or they’ll add firstlast as a recovery email or something.
Receiving other people’s email never stops being funny to me. Some of them are grumpy about it (especially the one who paid for and distributed “thousands” of poorly designed business cards.)
More have a sense of humor, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know a few of the other guys with the name over the years.
1123581321
Yeah people sometimes set the recovery email. I always assume it’s an attempt at setting up some kind of trail relating their fraudulent account with mine in an effort to take it over through some later social engineering attack on an engineer somewhere and I always delink it.
There shall be none but mine on mine. I have received since day one, 2005 emails at my address meant for others. Their pay stubs, their tax forms, the prospectus for the apartments they want. If I feel like it, I warn them. If I don’t, it goes to the ether. That’s life.
Sucks that you won’t get your loan. Or notice that your bank needs you to fill in a form.
arjie
I have had first.last since the beta data and firstlast always comes to me when I test it out.
could it be that something changed after the beta? but something also changed much more recently I'm sure of it because it's become a huge problem for me recently!
people are using my email as their recovery email which I have no option to 'unsubscribe' from. someone signed up with chime (a US money sending service) which unless your in the US there is absolutely no way to contact them about removing your email. I ended up going through the bug bounty programme as a last resort because I was receiving all their transactions and even had their address! I've had graduation photos, blood test results, shipping confirmations, beautician appointments, wedding planning (I had to email the vicar in the end and let him know I wasn't the bride being rude!) I get emails from a primary school and I'm invested in the receipts from a garden centre every few weeks though, they have quite a few rewards points now, they're working on their lawn at the moment and the other month they bought two jellycats!
At first I thought it might be someone whose email was at ymail.com but I'm not sure anymore it seems it's not linked to any one country or person either.
apricot13
This reminds me of why I'm very nervous I've been able to login to LinkedIn by just click an email LinkedIn sent me; and to someone else's Netflix account from an email that was sent to me by mistake.
You _could_ blame the users for not setting up 2FA. But two wrongs don't make a right, and these websites should always ask for another means of authentication, even if it's just a password. Url parameters in links don't count.
Zecc
I have a firstname.lastname@gmail account and sometimes get emails for firstnamelastname@gmail too. Mostly, it’s accounts being setup using that address then ending up in my mailbox. I assumed they were typos but, if I’m reading this blog correctly, is Google leaking emails from the other account into mine? If that the case, I’m pretty alarmed, as I use my Gmail for a lot of my accounts. Back to Hotmail, I guess?
comments (10)
I registered the `fname.lname` version very early on (before GMail was freely available), and while I do sometimes get emails sent to the `fnamelname` variant, which is consistent with someone having signed up with that variant, but is also consistent with someone just forgetting what their email address is (eg, they meant to type `fnamelname@hotmail.com`, or `fnamejlname`, or whatever). Especially since the mixups are very, veyr rare.
I can't rule out some weird collection of google bugs, but Occam's Razor suggests it's just an occasional typo. Especially until someone pulls up two screenshots of Google accounts showing colliding addresses.
Lazare
dublinben
I would like to see some of the evidence that two different people are logging in to accounts that are only different by periods.
smallerize
I paid 1.4€ or something on ebay back then for an invite and got a very common first.last@gmail.com, I’ve gotten everything, invoices, investment information, medical data, private photos, etc., though it has been getting better in the last few years, besides boring transactional mails and account recovery etc, I now only get such mails once or twice a year, used to be a monthly occurrence. Probably helped that I always wrote back and corrected those people ;)
Semaphor
I’m pretty sure the ignore the dot rule has always been there.
Kurd
People will forget their middle initial in their email (or others won’t notice it), or they’ll add firstlast as a recovery email or something.
Receiving other people’s email never stops being funny to me. Some of them are grumpy about it (especially the one who paid for and distributed “thousands” of poorly designed business cards.)
More have a sense of humor, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know a few of the other guys with the name over the years.
1123581321
There shall be none but mine on mine. I have received since day one, 2005 emails at my address meant for others. Their pay stubs, their tax forms, the prospectus for the apartments they want. If I feel like it, I warn them. If I don’t, it goes to the ether. That’s life.
Sucks that you won’t get your loan. Or notice that your bank needs you to fill in a form.
arjie
could it be that something changed after the beta? but something also changed much more recently I'm sure of it because it's become a huge problem for me recently!
people are using my email as their recovery email which I have no option to 'unsubscribe' from. someone signed up with chime (a US money sending service) which unless your in the US there is absolutely no way to contact them about removing your email. I ended up going through the bug bounty programme as a last resort because I was receiving all their transactions and even had their address! I've had graduation photos, blood test results, shipping confirmations, beautician appointments, wedding planning (I had to email the vicar in the end and let him know I wasn't the bride being rude!) I get emails from a primary school and I'm invested in the receipts from a garden centre every few weeks though, they have quite a few rewards points now, they're working on their lawn at the moment and the other month they bought two jellycats!
At first I thought it might be someone whose email was at ymail.com but I'm not sure anymore it seems it's not linked to any one country or person either.
apricot13
You _could_ blame the users for not setting up 2FA. But two wrongs don't make a right, and these websites should always ask for another means of authentication, even if it's just a password. Url parameters in links don't count.
Zecc
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