Comment by aroberge | Hacker News Reader

Comment by aroberge | Hacker News Reader

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The practice of checking the validity of email addresses seems to be lost on many (most?) businesses. I've found in my mailbox, from at least 4 other "A Roberge" located in either the U.S. or Canada the following:

Health insurance form and other information for a child

School report for a child

Mortgage information

Book library late notice

Nail product order confirmation

Multiple confirmations of job applications

PS4 account information

Various invitations to family gatherings

etc.

Whenever I could find the relevant information, I contacted the various people that send me the original email to correct the information. Most did not respond (including the father of a child with the above mentioned information who was copied on one email).

Sometimes the emails contained an unsubscribe button (yay) but, upon trying to use it, it asked for a password (which I obviously did not have). So, off to the spam folder...

So, I completely agree that Amazon's registration process is very flawed ... but there seems to be a lot of clueless people and businesses out there as well.

I get these regularly, and for purchase notifications on sites where I expect the person will come back, I make an effort to track them down and notify them.

The only one where I actually put in quite a bit of effort was when I was getting the email notifications for downloading someone's CME (Continuing Medical Education) certificates as they completed courses. It turned out to be a real pain - I could find the person, but couldn't get hold of them. Approaching retirement age, rural, etc. - I think I finally ended up leaving voicemail on their son's # and with their church, though it probably would've been easier at that point to just sit down and actually write and mail a letter.

And the only one that really annoys me is the gun nut. I get more crap from whacked out black helicopter EEEEBOOOOOLLLAAAAA idiots now...... And he actually gave them money, so they just don't go away.

Have you tried emailing them and telling them that every time they contact you, you are going to donate some money to 1) Obama and 2) some organization that lobby for more gun control?

If I actually felt like engaging, I'd probably just buy the original donator a gift subscription to The Nation or something like that. I regard the actual organization as being much like Glen Beck - either a completely cynical huckster who doesn't actually believe any of the crap he spews, or someone so dissociated from reality that discussions are pointless. Either way, I'm not going to convince them of anything, and after an initial unsubscribe I just mark anything further as spam and be done with it.

>"The practice of checking the validity of email addresses seems to be lost on many (most?) businesses."

Yes, including some that should really know better.

I see this issue with more than one major bank.

>"Whenever I could find the relevant information, I contacted the various people that send me the original email to correct the information."

That's brave. I've had nothing but grief with this - some combination of "Who are you?", "Leave me alone." and "You stole my email address!" in every case.

Contacting the sender isn't much better.

In the case of medical / financial information it seems to me there should be an easy way to report this to some sort of regulatory authority.

I've been getting something similar from what I assume is a married couple for the past 4-5 years now. From what I've been able to deduce from the emails, the wife has been putting down her husband's email address but constantly getting it wrong.

I've gotten American express travel itineraries, invoices for home furnishings, etc.

Wow, there are possibly both HIPAA and FERPA violations there...

In this case yes: the child is in the US. However, I am not...

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