I got my invite that fateful day and quickly found that while my first name was taken, first initial, last name was still available and that has been my primary email address ever since.
The honeymoon period only lasted a few weeks: the service was great, I had enough storage to last a lifetime, spam was quickly becoming a worry of the past, and I was the geek envy of my friends.
Then it began, a $10,000 phone bill showed up in my inbox from a Jamaican phone company. A client of in Jamaica had used my email as their contact information and I was getting their invoice.
I was young, naive, and called both companies in an attempt to sort the whole mess out. Despite assurances from both I still receive invoices on a monthly basis, 6 years later.
This pattern would play out time and time again over the next few years. Sometimes it would simply be a form letter from an online shopping site or newsletter, other times it would be more troubling, personal emails, intimate details of people's lives, sent to me instead of their friends and family.
Every time one of these would show up I'd painstakingly try to explain that they had the wrong address, why it was a danger to their identity to continue using an address they didn't control, and ask them to update their contacts.
This approach was usually met with surprise, anger, and most often, no response. These people would continue to use my email address and not receive their email.
It's soon to be 2011, marking 7 years of mistaken online identities, in that time social media has exploded, Myspace has given way to Facebook, Twitter has gone from a neat hack to a way of life for bloggers, and Google has pretty much taken over the world.
After getting a new crop of emails over the holidays I've decided to reciprocate. Thanks to Gmail, I have the email addresses of everyone who thinks I'm someone else. My plan is to start writing regular newsletters to my new captive audience as if they're my own friends or family. I'll also post the letters here along with any responses I get.
Enjoy!
