

Help I'm accidentally stealing people's identities and I don't know how to stop - jgrahamc
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/15/help-im-accidentally-stealing-peoples-identities-and-i-dont-know-how-to-stop

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jgrahamc
This happens to me _all the time_. I own the domain jgc.org and there's a
domain igc.org and lots and lots of people type the wrong address.

I used to get all the flight itineraries for a senior member of the Hewlett
family because of an igc/jgc error. Here's a selection of recent subject
lines:

    
    
        Ellen Bass + Chana Bloch/ Islamic Cultural Center Show
        Reminder: Prayer event at Hispanic church in Amsterdam, NY on May 16
        Torah Study in Loving Memory of Belda Kaufman Lindenbaum Z"L
        The Magic Flute at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
        You are invited to "SPJ Luncheon May 19th - Hon. James McHugh
    

And that doesn't include the really personal emails where people send photos
of their children, vacations, etc. Invite people to dinner, tell them what a
great time they had etc. etc.

~~~
cafard
Fifty or sixty years ago, a cousin had a telephone number that was one digit
off from a big taxi company's. I suppose that this is modern equivalent.

~~~
TheAdamist
i have the same number but different area code as a taxi cab, and i used to
get at least one call or voicemail a week in spanish (which i dont speak) to
send a taxi. online translation isnt fast enough for a conversation.

finally saw the taxi one day in front of my office, and they didn't print the
area code on the cab.

------
ColinWright
There's a balance to be struck between the "easy-to-spell-and-remember" versus
the "people-are-unlikely-to-get-this-mixed-up." I've inadvertently gone with
the latter, and thereby the main problem is people unable to contact me at all
because they can't remember the domain name.

~~~
Matheus28
I use me [at] m28.io, a lot of people ask "Is that a real email?" when they
see it. It's quite amusing.

------
eonw
blackhats have been known to do this. register freshly dropped domains and
setup a catch all email for it.

