HACKER Q&A
📣 andyexeter

How do I stop someone thinking my email is theirs


My email is .@, but the provider also routes any part before the @ missing certain punctuation to me.

For a few years now, someone with the same name as me has been signing up for online services using @. It’s always been a minor annoyance but over the years I have typically gone with an unsubscribe/delete and forget approach.

However, said imposter has now signed up for and Apple ID using this email address and I keep getting spammed with “Verify your email address” emails - presumably because they are re-sending them after they don’t reach “their” inbox.

How can I let the imposter know they’re using the wrong email address? Why would they go this long (circa 5 years) thinking my email address belongs to them?

I’m also a little concerned that this might affect my own Apple ID which is linked to my primary email address.

  👤 andrewfromx Accepted Answer ✓
you just need a filter to mark these messages as read and skip your inbox. out of sight out of mind. There's no way to stop spam but there is always a way to not see it.
👤 slater
i have a similar situation. i've "known" this guy for ~10 years now, all the way from him signing up on a random dating site, to the present where I'm getting e-mails about his mortgage, and school info e-mails regarding his kids :D

I used to respond to the ones that were obviously from a real person, imploring them to tell him he keeps getting his e-mail wrong, but no dice, so now i just respond "wrong e-mail address" and hope that sorts it out.