Fuddland

What is one supposed to do upon receiving an email that has the following gist?

Damn, you’ve already got the Gmail address I was hoping for, so I’ve signed up for one that differs from yours by one letter. In case any of my contacts are careless, I wanted you to have my address to be able to forward on to me any e-mail that looks like it wasn’t intended for you.

The last sentence is a verbatim quotation; note that he doesn’t ask if I mind forwarding his messages. Does one do his bidding? Ignore it? Or spend evenings composing numerous lurid or stomach-churningly pornographic messages, pseudo-forwarding them to him with a, “This one isn’t for me either, must be for you!” until he asks me to never forward anything to him ever again?

[Normally I’d probably just do it without a grumble, providing I don’t start receiving an unreasonable number of messages intended for him, but he made the cardinal mistake of addressing me as Dave, for which he must be punished.]

#1

highrise | 2005 / 08 / 23 – 08:08

I’d tell him to push off, quite frankly (but that’s just me)

In the unlikely event that I received a genuinely mis-directed personal email, I’d probably simply reply to the sender (first time only), pointing out their error.

The cheek of it!

#2

David | 2005 / 08 / 23 – 08:54

Re #1: Those are pretty much my thoughts. In the past I’ve received a couple of messages to the same account, intended for people with very similar addresses [e.g. myname2@ instead of myname@], and I just notified the sender of their error. I’ll probably do the same here [but first time only, as you say].

#3

the manly smell | 2005 / 08 / 23 – 09:06

Hi Dave ;),

I say forward him your spam. After 50 viagra messages a day, send him a caring note suggesting he see a counseller about his personal issues.

#4

David | 2005 / 08 / 23 – 09:16

Re #3: Manly! Good to hear from you. :) Not good enough to forgive the Dave, but still good. :P

#5

imogen | 2005 / 08 / 23 – 16:49

oh, man! my guess is that he’s an american. ; )

#6

David | 2005 / 08 / 23 – 18:04

Re #5: Heh, you’re not a million miles away with that guess. ;)

#7

Lyle | 2005 / 08 / 24 – 11:58

I say forward all your spam, and use his address to register for anything where spam seems like a feasible follow-on effect.

In fact, hell, just use his address for as much registration stuff as possible. Particularly all the marketing-type guff. Gets it out of your inbox, anyway.

#8

Jann | 2005 / 08 / 25 – 00:38

I think you should kill him.

#9

mrtn | 2005 / 08 / 25 – 15:43

and his family.

#10

Richard | 2005 / 08 / 25 – 17:50

Start surfing through an anonymising proxy, register a web mail account and start sending him emails from it about the bomb attack in the US you are both planning. Wait for the FBI to pick him up and cart him off to Guantanamo bay, then give an evil laugh. Problem solved.

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