Wrong number email.... do you ever help people ?

[cbelt3]

I've had the same email address for over two decades (!). And every now and then I get a personal or professional email that is addressed to someone else, usually because their actual email address is some variant of mine.

I've gotten wedding invitations, birth announcements, and today, a travel insurance declaration document for a couple taking a 25th anniversary trip to the tune of about $6,000. I pretty much always respond with a polite 'wrong email address'. But today I clicked on the link and called the travel agent who typed the wrong email address in. The little old lady on the phone was VERY thankful.

I figure it's the modern equivalent of the wrong number call. Happens to all of us.

[Black]

Sure. Especially bill collectors.

[OWC Jamie]

I used to get email that was intended for someone else with a very similar email address that worked at Boeing from someone who also worked there.
Interesting powerpoint slideshows attachments - some was delta III stuff, some I couldn't tell what it was.

[Paul F.]

Sure...
That's how I know there someone with my first and last name in New Mexico, one in Vancouver, one near Boston, and one near the French-Swiss border.
Only the last one was an idiot.
He signed up for an iTunes account using my email address. I started getting reciepts for purchases. I was able to see his "recovery" email address on one email when he was trying to log in and apparently forgot his password, so I emailed him politely explaining the problem (it's MY email address, not yours...).
He emailed back a rude phrase in French.
So, I clicked the "change password" link in the recovery email, changed his recovery email address, phone number, and mailing address, then changed his password again to lock him out of that account.
Never heard from him again...

Every once in a while I get emails intended for the one in Vancouver about a chiropractors appointment... who apparently has trouble remembering his clients email address, so he guesses - and guesses mine. I forward those along.

I get the occasional plane reservation for the one in New Mexico. Apparently, once you sign up with an email address with SouthWest, you're gonna get emails there forever - even if you change it online. I forward those too.
Got some personal correspondence for that guy too.. replied with a correction, AND forwarded it on. Whoever she was, she seemed kinda into him.


Doesn't hurt anything to be decent...

[DavidS]

We recently refinanced our mortgage. The agent I was working with emailed me a bunch of .pdf files with the good-faith estimate. She also included the file for another person she is helping. Big woops as it included his SS#, annual income, other property info, etc.

I called the processing agent and she thanked me for letting her know, but did not seem too disturbed that she did this. The other person is well known in Atlanta, as he had a large chain of photography stores that evetually got bought out. I think he sold right before the digital camera boom started.

[hal]

If I don't see that the content of the email is for me and I don't know the sender, I stop reading and declare it as spam. 95% of the time it's just spam that got through the filter. Life it too short to be reading spam...

[fauch]

I keep getting the phone bill of someone in India. I am not, nor have I ever been in India. I have sent them numerous emails, but they are insistent on me getting them. I hope the guy pays automatically...