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Reverse Identity Theft

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I asked a few friends whether they'd had this happen, then looked up the popularity of their initials/names over time.  Based on those numbers, it looks like there must be at least 750,000 people in the US alone who think 'Sure, that's probably my email address' on a regular basis.
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31 public comments
opheliasdaisies
4045 days ago
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Happens all the time. It's interesting what you can piece together of peoples' lives from mistaken emails.
NYC
Skotte
4047 days ago
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My email address has "Cheeze" with a Z instead of an S. I imagine the owner of the "Cheese" address gets a lot of my mail fFrom fFamily who don't notice the Z.
Rochester, Earth
therealedwin
4048 days ago
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This happens to me all the time with my gmail.
Seattle, Washington
cbenard
4048 days ago
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Happens all the damn time to me.
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
ksteimle
4048 days ago
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Looking at you, Ken and Katie...
Atlanta
MEVincent
4048 days ago
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I've even got a number in mine and have still collected a guy in FL and a guy outside London.
Manassas, Virginia
hansolosays
4048 days ago
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I got an excellent pancake recipe this way...
Norfolk, Virginia
jeffjacobs
4048 days ago
Apparently someone who doesn't know their email address is getting their house remodeled. Lots of appointments for new bath fixtures and curtains
sleepwalker
4030 days ago
I received mystery college acceptance letters. Eventually Samuel caught on and sent me a message himself asking about it. Also. er,would you be willing to share the recipe?
hansolosays
4029 days ago
here ya go.... Okay, Chuck. Here it is. Prepare to become a legend. The trick is to blend the dry ingredients thoroughly and beat the wet ingrediients together separately.. Then CARESS the wet ingredients into the dry. Don't overmix them because it will make them tough. Preheat griddle to 375. Mix together. 2 Cups Flour 1 tsp soda 1 tsp salt 4 Tbsp sugar In another bowl beat together 2 cups Buttermilk 2 Tbsp oil 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla Gently mix wet and dry ingredients together. Grease griddle -- Make smaller pancakes 1\4 to 1/2 cup batter. Turn when bubbles pop and do not close. (Hint: You may want to slightly increase the amount of sugar and vanilla according to your taste.) Once you master this recipe, people will beg you to make your pancakes at family get togethers. It really spoils them. Thanks again for a great time. It was so good to see you again.
zippy72
4049 days ago
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My namesake is the British ambassador to Iraq. If this happens, it could be interesting...
FourSquare, qv
pberry
4050 days ago
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This is my inbox.
Chico, CA
ravenel
4051 days ago
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Oh my God yes.
ÜT: 40.673477,-73.975108
ktgeek
4051 days ago
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I have this happen constantly. Makes me sad that I got in on gmail so damn early. Just means a lot of "spam" gets bit bucketed.
Bartlett, IL
librarinerd
4051 days ago
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I actually keep a file with all the people whose e-mail I get and their actual e-mails. I know which e-mails to forward to Pennsylvania and which to Texas...
Nilbog
wmorrell
4051 days ago
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ALL. THE. TIME. There are at least four distinct individuals who at one point or another believed they owned my email address.
tedder
4051 days ago
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this is why I have my own domain name. Never happens.
Uranus
WebWrangler
4051 days ago
Yep. Had my own domain for 14 years now. Never happens to me either
4051 days ago
Yeah, whatever, said John Smith. For me not so much of a problem.
superiphi
4048 days ago
you are never safe! I have iphi.ne/com/org -get tons of emails meant for Lphi.
jakesutton
4051 days ago
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My problem is younger people with my name.
United States
wyeager
4051 days ago
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My favorite are the photos of bass that some guy caught and tried to send to his brother. I may not have any brothers but I do know a nice looking bass when I see one.
Blur Area
zwol
4051 days ago
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This T-shirt will only get more common as time goes on.
Pittsburgh, PA
jonathanpeterson
4051 days ago
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firstname.lastname here. That limits how much I get. The good news is that the Wharton School is convinced that I'm an MBA alumni. I'm sorely tempted to order a "replacement" MBA diploma.
Atlanta, GA
rjstegbauer
4051 days ago
I can still get first.last@anywhere.com for probably forever. I have an uncommon lastname and now uncommon first name.
toxotes
4051 days ago
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Somebody with my last name and a *different* first initial signed up for phone service with my email address last week.
dianaschnuth
4051 days ago
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Or if your email is [last name] + @gmail.com...
Toledo OH
schnuth
4051 days ago
Kia still sends me emails for Uncle Charles. Ugh,
leilers
4051 days ago
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This happens to me All. The. Time. So far I've collected a professor in Arkansas and someone who works at the CDC in Atlanta and a Tea Partier. It's BIZARRE.
Northern Virginia
sleepwalker
4030 days ago
Your inbox sounds like a very strange place. Not sure I'd want to visit, much less live there.
NielsRak
4051 days ago
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Don't know what you're talking about... :)
oliverzip
4051 days ago
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The worst being this who sign up to xbox live and can use unvalidated email addresses and then are reduced to begging you to have their account back.
Sydney, Balmain, Hornsby.
jrdn
4051 days ago
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I have actually gotten job offers (plural), presumably intended for whatever evil doppelganger of mine doesn't know his email address.
nderksen
4051 days ago
Same here. I politely emailed them back advising them to phone the candidate instead. Also had an issue with someone setting their alternate email for their Yahoo account to mine, then they guy kept on emailing support asking why they weren't getting a response. Tried to get Yahoo support to understand but because I didn't have the responses to their security questions they ignored me. So annoying.
jtgrimes
4052 days ago
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Alt text: I asked a few friends whether they'd had this happen, then looked up the popularity of their initials/names over time. Based on those numbers, it looks like there must be at least 750,000 people in the US alone who think "Sure, that's probably my email address" on a regular basis.
Oakland, CA
jscartergilson
4052 days ago
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Seem familiar?
MaryEllenCG
4051 days ago
GAH. YES. And mine's not even (first initial)(last name).
rascalking
4052 days ago
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THIS. ALL THE TIME THIS.
Wakefield, MA
Lythimus
4051 days ago
I still can't believe it's good that I was too young and stupid to get my name for a gmail address when it was in invitation-only mode.
ScottInPDX
4052 days ago
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Or just the last name. I get tons of mail not for me.
Portland, Oregon, USA, Earth
kipthegreat
4051 days ago
or [firstname].[lastname]. i have a very uncommon first name (Kip) but i get mail for a mormon firefighter in california and a boy scout leader in arkansas and a heating&air guy in arizona. but surprisingly i've never gotten mail intended for my dad, who has the same name as me
lrwrp
4052 days ago
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Experience dis all the time.
??, NC

Bug-a-salt

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I ordered and received my Bug-a-salt gun late last fall, pretty late in the fly season to really get to put it to serious use. Well, early spring in Western Washington and they are coming back. Over the years I became very proficient with rubber bands, hunting flies and yellow jackets – this takes it to a whole new level.

The Bug-a-salt doesn’t “cream” the flies, leaves them pretty well intact, but it is quite effective. Non-toxic, environmentally friendly, it is spring powered and doesn’t eat batteries. Just table salt.

The gun has sights, but due to the shot pattern and the height of the sights above the bore for me it is a “point and shoot” proposition. A sheet of aluminum foil taped to the wall works well to pattern the shot, like a patterning board for a shotgun. It lets you see the spread of the salt, and calculate your effective range. I am definitely getting better. It is possible to shoot flies out of the air. There is nothing else like it.

The invention and marketing of this product are a story unto itself. I ordered mine early, when they were setting up for manufacture and was able to follow the trials and tribulations of getting this to market. The exportation to some of the countries they had orders from were amazingly complicated.

This year I switched to Morton Kosher salt and find it works better on flies than the table salt. Last year’s tests on yellow jackets were exciting, but not effective. Maybe with the kosher salt…

-- Norm Bolser

Bug-a-Salt
$35

Available from Amazon

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4 public comments
jgbishop
1723 days ago
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This would be mildly fun to own.
Durham, NC
Romanikque
4150 days ago
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must have this
Baltimore, MD
josephwebster
4151 days ago
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Who cares if it's really effective. It looks like fun.
Denver, CO, USA
librarinerd
4151 days ago
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Also effective with tiny ghosts and demons.
Nilbog

Giant Grocery Store Opening on H Street May 3rd

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IMG_0140
3rd and H Street, NE

@HStreetDC_ tweeted the news:

“The #hstdc Giant will open May 3! They were at 6c ABL committee tonite with details. Beer and wine.”

IMG_0142
Looking west



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librarinerd
4244 days ago
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Holy cow! RIP Murray's.
Nilbog

Everything You Loved (and Hated) About the '90s in 1 Song

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Rugrats and Trapper Keepers and Fresh Prince, oh my! It's the '90s!

It was your childhood, when Lisa Frank, MTV's golden age and Nickelodeon cartoons had a place before Disney stars became a thing. It was the best 10 years in the world

No? Bad stuff happened in the '90s? Blasphemy. No one ever talks about that, we're too busy naming every Hanson song and counting our scrunchies. But Pop Roulette doesn't mind reminding you about some of the not so fab stuff of the time period

Don't love the '90s so much anymore? Eat a Lunchables and watch a rerun of Boy Meets World, you'll perk back up Read more...

More about Viral Videos, Share As Post, The 90s, Watercooler, and Videos
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librarinerd
4256 days ago
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Stuff from the 90's! This brings back memories. Was it really 20 years ago?!
Nilbog

How Not to Talk To People With Mental Illness, Episode #43,635

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This is written in response to a comment on my blog, commenting on the post Some Incomplete Thoughts on Mental Illness and Shame:

I’ve not had a mental illness to my knowledge and no depression so I’m willing to concede I know nothing and should not comment but I’m going to anyway.
I love reading your blog but IMHO you think too deeply about the depression and its not healthy.
My suggestion would be to talk to good friends about this but have a break from writing about it for a bit.
Writing might be ‘burning it in’ to the parts of you brain that think deeply and that might be making it harder to resist because depression sort of gets ‘tagged’ to a lot of other thought processes that you have to use daily as part of your life.
Only write about the good things for a bit or the things that make you angry. (I especially like those.)
But not about being depressed. Just try a break for a bit.
No evidence this might work but didn’t want to stay silent and offer nothing. A big virtual hug.

Dear Commenter,

I know you mean well, and I’ll try to take your comment in that spirit. But if you have no personal experience with mental illness, aren’t a trained professional in the field of mental illness, and by your own acknowledgement don’t have any evidence to support the opinions you’re expressing about mental illness, please don’t give advice to mentally ill people on how to manage their illness.

Writing publicly about my depression has been extremely helpful. It helps me process it and make sense of it. It helps alleviate the sense of shame I’ve been made to feel about it. It helps me normalize it, and frame it as simply another illness, like my cancer or the time I had pneumonia — which also helps alleviate the shame. The fact that my writing about it helps others gives meaning to it, which makes it more tolerable. There is no possible way that I’m not going to “think deeply” about my depression — that’s part of the nature of depression — but writing about it helps keep those thoughts from spinning into a secret, self-perpetuating black hole. It helps give me insight into it, helps me crystallize and focus those thoughts in a productive way, and helps me move on from them. And when I write about my depression, I often get good suggestions and ideas on how to manage my depression from other people who experience it. I’m not the only one, either: many people I know who experience depression and other mental illness say that being more public about it has helped them.

And when people tell mentally ill people not to speak about it publicly, It’s nearly impossible to not hear it in the social context of shame and silencing — even if it’s not intended that way.

When you have a voice in your head saying “I shouldn’t comment,” I urge you to listen to it. If you feel driven by compassion to say something, to “not stay silent and offer nothing,” I suggest you try saying, “I’m really sorry you’re going through this.” If that doesn’t seem like enough, you can add, “If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.” But please don’t tell mentally ill people to shut up about our illness. Thanks.

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HBO Mulls Making HBO Go Available to Non-Cable Subscribers

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HBO's CEO is considering making the company's HBO Go online streaming service available to consumers who don't have cable, according to a report.

"Right now we have the right model," HBO chief executive Richard Plepler told Reuters on Wednesday. "Maybe HBO GO, with our broadband partners, could evolve."

HBO Go, which has about 6.5 million registered users, requires a subscription to a cable operator. However, Plepler mused that the service could conceivably be packaged with a broadband service offering. Broadband customers could pay $10 or $15 extra for HBO to be added to the service, Plepler said, adding, "We would have to make the math work."

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librarinerd
4261 days ago
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Please!!!
Nilbog
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