I'm sure this works if you're buying a couple thousand shares at a time but I don't think buying 10 shares of Southwest is going to make them listen to you any more or less when you have an issue on your flight.
Though it is impolite to lie.
I thought companies only knew the brokerage, and it was the brokerage who could tie it back to a specific person ?
Edit: and I see downstream he has an answer
(Obviously one can still email IR without actually owning a share, but I both prefer not lying and also enjoy the aesthetics of capitalism, which are extremely invested—ba dum bum—in seeing someone who owns one share as a shareholder.)
Anyhow: bored person, near top of org chart, with access to escalation group if that exists, who earns six figures and really wants you to come away from the experience satisfied. Exists in almost every publicly traded company in America.
The "From" header on the email? It might be possible someone sending from a @gmail.com address is a hedgie, but if they want to announce their affiliation they'll use their company email.