[bluGill]

People make mistakes.Just because someone made a mistake isn't permission to commit a crime against them.

[asciimov]

Accidentally signing up once is a mistake. One person signing up for products, credit cards, unemployment, medical bills, television services, payday loans, mortgages, jobs with my email address over a 6 year period isn’t a mistake. This is some middle age dude in middle America.

[ffsm8]

What gives you the confidence to say that it was a single individual and not just a common email name which lots of people accidentally used?

[alwa]

I get regular emails intended for my doppelgänger, and have for many, many years. I know her entire family by proxy—we’ve effectively moved through the same stages of life together, in parallel, across the globe. For a while I used to respond to the more important-seeming messages, but it’s more mailing lists now. She and I are very far away physically—and it’s hard to say whether she knows about me at all, as I don’t mess up the email address in our collective name…

Oddly enough I’m still not sure of her correct address, only those of her correspondents. And in some cases family members.

[selcuka]

> What gives you the confidence to say that it was a single individual

Because you can see their first name and last name on the emails you receive.

[asciimov]

And addresses, I even knew when he was sending his mistress nicer flowers than his wife.

I get other people’s email too, just this guy has been more prolific than others.