Should I reply to this?

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Nimrod
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Should I reply to this?

Postby Nimrod » Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:30 am

I have received an email from someone i don't know,a gmail account.
In the email he mistakes me for someone else and goes on to make arrangements to meet later in the year in scarborough.,very detailed stuff about times etc.
All seems pretty normal stuff to me.
should i reply telling him I'm not who he thinks I am so he can check addresses or just junk it?
I'd hate to upset anyone's plans but don't know if there is any virus type danger involved,there were no attatchments.
Thanks for your help.

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Enrique
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Re: Should I reply to this?

Postby Enrique » Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:35 am

Hi Nimrod,

No

Just delete it..............If they are expecting a reply and don't get one, they will contact by other means.
All my best learning experiences start with a problem I need to solve.

Nimrod
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Re: Should I reply to this?

Postby Nimrod » Thu Jan 06, 2011 12:11 pm

Thank you Enrique.
Ever helpful as usual :thumbup:

Beachcomber
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Re: Should I reply to this?

Postby Beachcomber » Thu Jan 06, 2011 12:37 pm

My wife gets these with her gmail account. As Enrique says, just ignore them. It's some kind of scam but I don't know how it works or what would happen if you answered it.
Let's go Brandon!

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.Griff.
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Re: Should I reply to this?

Postby .Griff. » Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:01 pm

It's not a scam but the way Gmail (Googlemail) formats it's email addresses so anyone sharing a similar name to you also having a Gmail account needs to be extra careful that you don't end up with each others emails. (There's even a help article hidden away in Gmail covering this subject)

For example Gmail ignore dots (full stops) in usernames so [email protected] ,fred.smith@, fred.s.m.i.t.h@ and f.red.smith@ all end up in the same account. That's just one example of their name formatting.

I've had Ryan air boarding passes, American Airline boarding passes, a PDF file containing someones medical records for health insurance purposes and loads more genuine emails all end up in my Gmail account because the sender wasn't careful enough and although the recipient shared my name they sent it to my account in error.

A quick email back saying the email has been sent to the wrong person isn't going to result in your PC catching fire or your bank account emptying itself. I would leave it at that though and ignore any further emails from the sender.

Nimrod
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Re: Should I reply to this?

Postby Nimrod » Thu Jan 06, 2011 5:36 pm

Thank you very much everyone.
Very interesting and good advice from all.
Thanks from a technophobe!

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Enrique
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Re: Should I reply to this?

Postby Enrique » Thu Jan 06, 2011 7:21 pm

Hi Nimrod,
As .Griff says...........looks like a typo on the senders side.

Some info from other sources..........

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/g ... 2e2a&hl=en

My rule is if you don't recognise the sender.......don't open it, just bin it.
All my best learning experiences start with a problem I need to solve.

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.Griff.
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Re: Should I reply to this?

Postby .Griff. » Thu Jan 06, 2011 8:28 pm

Some more reading for Gmail users - http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answ ... swer=10313


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