A Case of Mistaken Identity

Back when GMail was all shiny and new and invitation only (and hey, speaking of Google invites, hit me with a Wave invite somebody) I was excited to get my own GMail address with my choice of username that corresponded to the net.identity I'd been using for several years.

And then along came another guy who seemed to think that my email address was his, and the spam started. I could hop into my spam folder and tell you an awful lot about a guy named Larry who lives near East St. Louis. And then more people started getting GMail addresses, and some certain subset of them continue to think that they're me. I get marketing emails from a boat company. I get agendas for school board meetings. A couple weeks ago, I got a full description of a wedding ceremony, who would enter when, what music should be played, when vows would be exchanged, etc. I replied to that one saying that it all sounded lovely, but I had no idea who Roy and Yasmin were and why I was getting that email.

Yesterday, I received an email entitled "Verizon Wireless Order Confirmation". It came from the oh-so-helpful address of "donotreply@verizonwireless.com". I use Sprint and haven't had any contact with VZW ever, so I knew it wasn't for me. Within the email was the full name, address, and soon-to-be-live mobile phone number of a gentleman in Arizona. Now this was either the guy in AZ not knowing his own address, or the guy at VZW typing it in wrong. In any event, it's still not something I should be getting. There was nothing in the email giving me any way to contact Verizon Wireless by email or web; however I did locate the name, toll-free number and extension of the salesman for this transaction, so I placed a call. I left a voicemail trying to explain that I wasn't the guy in AZ, and left my number so I could help them resolve this problem.

That was well over 24 hours ago. I've heard nothing.

So fair warning, VZW customers. If you're not very careful, your personal information might get sent to somebody else. Somebody who might not be as honest as me. And apparently, VZW just doesn't give a flying fig.