[Jtsummers]

Yep. I snagged a gmail address early on without numbers. I get lots of emails for people with similar initials to mine but who have some number after the name. None of them had verification messages that I could have rejected (and those that did, I safely ignored and never got spammed by).

[mttrms]

same here - got my full (common enough) name while gmail was in closed invite-only beta.

I get a ton of emails for others on a weekly basis with a ton of info not meant for me to see.

One specific account "I" signed up for was a playstation account that actually prevented me from signing up for my own account. It took ~1hr of live chat with Sony to actually create an account with my email address.

(And yes I am aware I can add additional periods or +keyword to the email)