Gmail flaw ?

[Manish]

Hi all,
I was curious if any one has noticed - or is this a
known cause.

I have an email id as <firstnameDOTlastname@gmailDOTcom> and another
person has his email as<firstnamelastname@gmailDOTcom> with no DOT
between the first and last name.

I have been receiving emails intended for the other person into my
mail box. does any one know how to fix this - and if it is possibel
to fix as a user?

is Google aware of this issue? if so have they fixed it? if not
how do we let them know.

thanks,
Manish

[Evan Hart]

I spoke with Suzanne in gmail support last week for my gmail premier account and this just happen to come up.
dots are removed from the email address and it gets delivered to the same email as if it was typed without the dots in it..

Now whether or not someone else can signup/create a new gmail account with dots in it I don't know.. I just tried it under my premier account and it gave the following error "Email address contains invalid user name" so I would guess that it wouldn't work for gmail either.

In other words... its your email and someone just typed your address wrong...


    ~Evan

[Zack (Doc)]

It's your e-mail. GMail does not recognize dots when delivering
e-mail, and wouldn't let anyone else register with the same name
regardless of the number of dots.

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=10313&topic=13272#

--
Unknown - "If you don't find it in the index, look very carefully
through the entire catalogue."

[Manish]

i m not sure I get it.
I have a free account and another user has a free acount without a
dot in teh mail id. I keep getting his email in my mail box.

Can you suggest me whom to get in touch with to help resolve this
issue?

thanks

> through the entire catalogue."- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[smpa...@gmail.com]

How are you sure that it is another user? Do you know him? Gmail
won't allow that, it would be a pretty huge glitch to allow two users
to use the same name - to Gmail they are exactly the same name,
because it ignores the dot.

[Andrew Ingraham]

> i m not sure I get it.
> I have a free account and another user has a free acount without a
> dot in teh mail id. I keep getting his email in my mail box.

I'm going to guess that this "other person's" email you're seeing is spam.
The people who sent it, meant for YOU to receive it.

Gmail doesn't allow two people to sign up for Gmail accounts with the same
username when you ignore all the dots. "firstname.lastname" and
"firstnamelastname" are the same username, as is
"f.ir.s.tn.am.elastn.a.m.e". Whoever picks the username (ignoring the dots)
first gets it, and anyone who later tries to pick the same username (with
any combination of dots), gets a message saying that the username is already
taken.

Andy

[Manish]

thanks for your responses.
It is not spam as I am receiving his credit card statements - which
obviously are not meant for me.I also receive his personal emails
from his friends and company emails so obviously all this is not for
me.

It is easy to rebuke some one else instead of helping resolve the
issue - Zack Doc - keep the comments to yourself - I dont mean to be
rude but i think we are all here to help one another. I would
appreciate if you have some thing to contribute.

Thanks,
Manish

[Ryan Morehart]

I would guess then that he incorrectly gave out his email address. The
simple fact is that Gmail completely ignores any periods in a person's
name. You may want to try giving one of the personal emails a response
back and see if you can figure out what's wrong.

Ryan

[Andrew Ingraham]

> It is not spam as I am receiving his credit card statements - which
> obviously are not meant for me.I also receive his personal emails
> from his friends and company emails so obviously all this is not for
> me.

In that event, those emails you're receiving should give you his name, his
address, and maybe his phone number, with which you can contact him
directly. That ought to be your next step.

Since you say it's not spam, the likelihood is that he told people his email
address but with a typo that made it match yours, without the dot.

On the other hand, nothing in this world is 100% foolproof and I suppose
there is a chance that Gmail's servers failed to notice that one of your
accounts already existed when the second one signed up. Having two accounts
with the same username does create many problems, as you can imagine. If
that is the case, use Gmail's troubleshooting menus and submit the problem
to Google (with enough detail to convince them you are receiving real emails
sent to someone else), and hopefully someone will get back to you soon. (As
we tell everyone, this user group isn't the way to report a problem to
Gmail/Google.)

Just out of curiosity, what happens if you try to login to Gmail using the
"other guy's" username, without the dot? Logging in is supposed to be the
only time the dots matter. Does the error message suggest your username,
with the dot?

> It is easy to rebuke some one else instead of helping resolve the
> issue - Zack Doc - keep the comments to yourself -

But there's somewhere between a 99.999999% and 100.00000% chance that Zack
was right. Two accounts with the same username are supposed to never
happen, and as far as we know it hasn't yet, until someone proves otherwise.
But new Gmail users often don't realize that the dots in the username don't
matter so they assume something is wrong when they receive email without the
dots in the To: address. Zack's reply was correct about that.

Andy

[Manish]

Andy ,
Thanks for your comments. I have tried logging in using the
other persons mail id just to make sure that my id and his arent
the same.
1. The passwords are different for both users so obviously gmail
doesnt allow me.
2. I believe internally there is an email resolution problem before
the @ symbol.
3. I have tried sending him emails to try to resolve the issue so
far havent heard anything.
4. yes this seems to be a one off odd case but Id appreciate if
any once can help me get in tocuh with Gmail support staff /
technology folks I can try to adrress it directly.
5. Zack and you may be right about new email address's but how do we
resolve my issue . If im receiving another persons email in my mail
box - what is the liklihood that he may be receiving mine - given
the fact that both of us share same first and last name..

-Manish

On Jul 26, 12:44 am, Andrew Ingraham <andrew.ingra...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Andrew Ingraham]

Manish,

> 5. Zack and you may be right about new email address's but how do we
> resolve my issue . If im receiving another persons email in my mail
> box - what is the liklihood that he may be receiving mine - given
> the fact that both of us share same first and last name..

If there are indeed two accounts that differ only in the "dots" in the
username, then I guess anything's possible, including the other person
finding getting your emails in their Inbox.

So go to the Help center and the troubleshooting steps. You may need to try
it a few times and be "creative" with your problem description, but it
should lead you to the point where you can enter a problem report for
Google.

Andy

[Dan L]

>> In that event, those emails you're receiving should give you his name, his
>> address, and maybe his phone number, with which you can contact him
>> directly. That ought to be your next step.

I agree with what Andrew said above - if you are getting real emails
for this person why don't you respond to them or look on the bank
statements for a snail mail address or a phone number and call the guy/
girl and tell them about the problem
It'd be nice to have Gmail Help Team help you resolve the problem but
contacting the person by yourself is definitely a more quick and
efficient solution.

[Zack (Doc)]

You're right.. you don't get it. There is no other user.

--
Mary Chase - "I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and
I'm happy to state I finally won out ov...