My real name, while not traditional, isn’t exactly unique. This means that I remember when Gmail first dropped, and I did a mad dash (did you have to be invited back then? I can’t remember) to get my [email protected] account. And I did. I’ve had that email account for well over a decade now, and professionally, it’s served me well.
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Oh, by the way, my real name isn’t Panama Jackson, if you’re new here.
Anyway, this email account and I have been through some things. There was the great hack of 2009 where an article I wrote here on VerySmartBrothas.com pissed off somebody enough for them to hack into my Gmail accounts (three of them), two Yahoo accounts and my MySpace page. It was a whole bitch to get it all sorted out but I did, eventually. Thankfully, Liz Burr (our third VSB co-founder) knew somebody at Google who was able to help me retrieve my accounts. Without that they’d have all been lost to Black History.
Anyway, what I have also noticed over time is that I started getting emails that were clearly not for me but were absolutely sent to my email account. See, my email is FIRSTNAME.LASTNAME but they were all coming to FIRSTNAMELASTNAME. While I know that dot is cute, it doesn’t count as a real character; it was purely for aesthetics. Betcha by golly, wow.
My main curiosity is this: does this person who shares an email with me put that email address down on applications or do companies use a dummy email that just so happens to be my email address? These things keep me up at night.
For instance, last night, my email doppelganger got a whole ass job offer. That shit sounds important. The email, from a recruiter, is asking “us” about starting tomorrow if the job is ready, which it sounds like it is. I get weekly pay stubs from a staffing company in Atlanta called Preferred Personnel. My email doppelganger uses Sprint and e-billing, which is odd because, well, I don’t use Sprint at all. But I get all of the emails. So I have all of the phone numbers. I know about the switch from Verizon to Sprint (who does that?). I’ve got addresses.
Hell, I’ve gotten so many emails I can track all the moves UNLESS multiple people with my same name are using my email account.
Let’s be clear, lest you all think I’m irresponsible: I change my email account password, for this account in particular, frequently because of this situation. And nobody has tried to reset my password, as far as I can tell. I check the IP address frequently as well; it’s always me. So I don’t actually think somebody is in my emails going through my personal life, etc. But it is also for this reason that, over time, I have also moved most of my important emails to another email account. I don’t know these people and I have no idea why they, the same people, continue to add this non-accessible email account to their bills, resumes and important documents.
I tried to email them but it turns out I was just emailing myself. I was going to text but I thought that might be opening me up to unwanted further conversation. I did email one of the companies that the email address for the employee was wrong and they should follow up with them to get a more accurate email address. I’ve yet to hear back.
Anyway, I hope buddy who is also using my email for his important personal shit also got a phone call from the company trying to get him some employment. Lots of folks are employment-insecure right now; it would be a shame he’s missing an opportunity because he doesn’t actually use the internet.
In the meantime, I’m going to change my email passwords again.
Is anybody else having this issue?
Straight From 
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