Perplexed.

I've started to use my gmail account a lot more in the last few weeks, as it hooks up with the iPhone quite nicely. I got my gmail account way back when it was still beta, and you had to know someone who could forward you an invitation to open an account. As a result, I have an account that's firstname.lastname@gmail.com. I know it's mine because I successfully use the password to get into the account, and most of the mail is something I want or have signed up for.

I've recently discovered that someone in Seattle has been giving out that address as their own - I get party invitations, messages from friends iPhones, school notifcations, etc. that belong to the other person. Most of the time, I'm nice and just send back a "this isn't the correct email" note, but after sending several of those, I asked the sender of today's email (a school notification) to let the person know that the email that they've been giving out isn't in fact their email.

I don't really understand this - gmail does require you to type in your email each time you log in, so hopefully over time, you become familiar with it. And if you give out an email that goes to someone else, you should realize that you're probably not going to get the party invites, school notices and friends emails that you actually want. I do hope the person figures out their actual email soon, and starts giving that out to friends and family.