Hacker News Reader

Comment by gnicholas | Hacker News Reader

> but I also have access to the account because I own james.hfisher@gmail.com, and so I can follow the password reset process for this account. I did so.

I wonder if others feel that it is ethical or unethical to log into other people's accounts in this situation.

I get lots of emails resulting from people typo'ing my email address instead of theirs—and the unsubscribe links are often hidden behind a login page. But I feel uncomfortable signing in using a "forgot password" link into an account that I know isn't mine. At the end of the day, I usually just create (yet another) email filter to automatically delete these emails (marking them as spam doesn't train the spam filters in my experience).

I'd be interested to know what others think of the ethics of this, or if there are other workarounds.

View on HN

When this happens to me, I reset the password and abandon the account. I assume whoever created the account made a mistake, but I have no way to contact them. When they have to sign in again, they’ll have to create a new account, but they’ll hopefully use their own email address.

It’s never happened to me with a paid account, but if it did, I’d cancel it.

I'd log in an cancel the account. Why feel wierd? Someone is using your email address without your permission.

Curious how often this happens.

I have firstname.lastname (although now it just forwards to my FastMail vanity domain) and I've shut down new eBay and Amazon accounts plus received doctors appointments and even school lunch duty emails. Sometimes I respond, and I even forwarded a couple after figuring out one mis-user's real email (firstnamelastname0) when a cable company csr chat log was emailed, but they never responded so now I delete them all.

Wow, what a shitshow.

Do we have a word to describe frustrations caused as a byproduct of other people's use of technology? I wonder if the Japanese do.

I've had the same: I have firstname.lastname, and I've had netflix, nytimes subscription, dropbox registrations (and warnings that it's full), hotel bookings, and many other things that are nothing to do with me, targeted to firstnamelastname.

I also get regularly added to conversations with other people who think I'm someone else. Again and again I've had to try and explain that they've got the wrong email address, but it happens so often now, I just don't bother now and ignore the emails.

I'm receiving other peoples mail all the time. My first gmail account was about 13-14 years old. Recently i'm receiving mails from Argentina constantly about museum trips, school meetings of people. I reply them explaining that i am from far far away and notify the person about the situation. When i check the "To:" section, the mails sent myhandle67@gmail.com or myhande.78@gmail.com.

My other gmail account is namesurname@gmail.com and i receive about 6-7 of different peoples mail with the same name surname combination. It happened in hotmail also btw.

I got phone bills, cargo shipment details, hospital working schedule documents, private messages from a marriage social network kind of a site. I can easily login to the site with link in the mail and can read all his really private messages, flirting with the ladies.

I called the phone bill guy, his parents answered it a little panicking, i explained them the situation. But the mails keep coming, so i call the phone company. They said they take action immediately but nothing changed.

I called the cargo guy tell him his cargo is on his way and who i am. He surprised and confused like others when he heard a guy with the same name surname called him.

I called the hospital, someone else answered. Explain him the situation to let him know. He was surprised and asked me if i have the last months schedule pdf because it got lost or something.

I couldn't reach the old womanizer guy, contact the site and mails stopped.

I'm not using the dot feature myself but somethings not working correctly with it i guess. In this particular case i think Netflix should validate the e-mail addreses.

(I get a ton of misdirected email because I have a six character gmail address with a common name.)

My rule is that I'm willing to "steal" the account and cancel it or change the email for "unimportant" services, like dating sites. For financial institutions, I contact the institution instead. (My email has gotten associated with at least two bank accounts that aren't mine.)

Ethically - you shouldn't log in to other people's accounts, but rather, you should delete the email (and possibly notify them if you can).

I'm pretty sure that legally it's problematic as well.

The law isn't on your side if you log into a litigious person's account without their permission.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com