[jaynate]

My gmail address is [e-mail]. From time to time (and for years) I get someone else’s at [e-mail]. I thought that a Gmail account that was first.last@gmail also allowed for email sent to firstlast@gmail (no period) to reach my inbox as well.

I’ve received some sensitive/PII content over the years.

I’ve wondered if this person has access to any of my information?

Not necessarily related to this post, but wonder why and how this could happen.

[lysace]

> I’ve wondered if this person has access to any of my information?

No. They have just told someone your email address and that someone has sent you stuff. Anyone can do that, if they dream up your email address. People having the same name are a lot more likely to do that.

Happened to me as well. I was the first one of the 50 people or so carrying my name to register "first[.][e-mail]" back in 2004. At least two of my namesakes have since mistakenly used my email address. Some people just aren't very detail-oriented.

[neilv]

I bet this is it.

I have a [e-mail], and my namesake has [e-mail] (with middle initial, and I think they originally created the GMail username without periods).

So, I sometimes receive emails intended for him, by people who saw firstmlastname and think it's firstlastname.

Maybe around a hundred emails so far, over the years.

I've gotten good at telling at a glance that an email is for him, without reading it, and forwarding and deleting.

Fortunately, my namesake is a very accomplished good-guy, so I'm happy to help.

[hamdingers]

I still control my first name @gmail.com from very early on, but have never been able to put it to use because of the relentless torrent of misdelivered email.

[cdelsolar]

I still own and use [e-mail]. Yeah I get a ton of misaddressed mail, even some from a relatively famous person with the same last name.

[dmurray]

Maybe their email is [e-mail], and people occasionally misremember your address and send your correspondence to them. In that case, yes.

More likely their email address is [e-mail] or [e-mail] though, in which cases the types of mistakes people make are likely asymmetric.

[jibal]

periods are ignored in gmail addresses so there's no difference between [e-mail] and [e-mail]

[gnabgib]

No it isn't.. it's [e-mail] [Dots don't matter in gmail addresses](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150)

[kelnos]

No, I think what's happening is someone else is confused what their email address is. With Gmail, dots are not significant; any email address with dots is equivalent to the email address without any dots. (So you may have signed up as first.last@, but your email address under the hood is really firstlast. You can also send mail to your [e-mail], and it will be delivered to you.)

I expect that someone else with the same name as you occasionally (or all the time) forgets that their actual email address is [e-mail] or [e-mail] or some other similar combo, and enters your email into signup forms. Or has friends who guessed their email address and got it wrong. Or something.

That other person doesn't have access to your information.

[jibal]

> I thought that a Gmail account that was first.last@gmail also allowed for email sent to firstlast@gmail (no period) to reach my inbox as well.

Yes, and you've received email that was addressed like that ... so what's your issue?

> I’ve wondered if this person has access to any of my information?

Yes, because "this person" is you.

[bluedevil2k]

Handy tip for software testing - Gmail ignores everything after a “+” in the address. So when you’re testing different accounts in your software you can use <youremail>[e-mail], <youremail>[e-mail], <youremail>[e-mail] etc. to create many different accounts in the software that all go to the same email address.

[cardamomo]

That's not just a Gmail feature. It's part of RFC 5233. See "Subaddressing."

[Terretta]

Indeed, also works at outlook.com / hotmail and others.