Wrong e-mail address

So a few weeks back I received a trip itinerary for some woman in Maine in my inbox. I just ignored it. Got a second one (to rate the trip) a couple weeks later. I was actually able to access some of her info on that website by following an embedded link. I got in and changed all the settings so I wouldn't get spammed from the site. I was bored, so I poked around a bit and had her narrowed down to 1 of 3 people. I only got as far as age range, city and a couple of phone numbers.

Now I'm getting payment statements from one of her creditors. I can now add credit card and bank name info to what I already know. I poked around in the CC site, but wasn't able to get anywhere.
I figured if she keeps putting the wrong e-mail address down, I'll eventually have all her info. So being the swell guy I am (plus I had some time to kill waiting for a client to get home) I called the CC company. Got the call center. Explained I was getting someone else's payment statements and wanted to see if they could contact her or at least remove my e-mail address.
They asked for the account number.
Explained again that its not my account.
They then asked for the SS number associated with the account.
Explained yet again it wasn't my account.
Was told I need to write a letter to so and so at which point I just hung up.

(The CC company was GE Capital)

My question is would you bother to try reporting this to whomever or would you just mark it spam and let the filters take care of it?

 

I would have gone as far as you did zombie, and then I would have turned on the spam filter.

 

I'd mark it as spam and leave it at that.

If the person can't be bothered to check what contact info he/she gives to people/organizations and repeatedly gives out false info out of his/her own incompetence, then that is sure-as-hell not my problem.

 

I get voicemail. My first work phone, it was for a guy who was a well-off trader on Wall Street getting invitations to all sorts of events like the Victoria's Secret luxury box for the Super Bowl (at least two or three of their most famous models were going to be there!) and for his Manhattan Self Storage unit that was going to be auctioned off if he didn't at least contact them about paying for it. My current work phone's number was apparently shared by a drug dealer, a woman named Teresa, and a woman named Jan, none of who have friends or callers smart enough to figure out that my greeting of "You're reached the work phone of [name] from [university]" means that I am neither Teresa nor Jan. I guess it could be a drug dealer's cover, though.

My brother got an email from The Guardian asking him to negotiate payment for contributing to their Cricket blog a while ago.

 

Its just my g-mail account. I only set that up so I could get my e-mail easier on the computer and my phone.

 

I'm going to go against the grain here and say that you have a moral responsibility to let her know that you're getting some pretty senstitive information. You should at least try to call GE Capital again. Whether or not they realize it, they're in a very precarious position if they're sending sensitive information to the wrong email address.

The right thing to do is call in again and ask for a supervisor if necessary.

 

I think I would have asked to speak to a supervisor, and if they couldn't fix it, I might try to make contact with her to tell her what's going on.

Hey, maybe she's hot....

 

I also get emails periodically from GE Capital, and did for Chase and PNC during other periods. These are all meant for people who share my name, but apparently put the wrong email address down when they signed up for account alerts. I have also tried calling to get this fixed, to no avail. I've even gotten Netgear service ticket emails and the like, probably from someone calling in for service and forgetting to add a number or two to the end of the email address they give. It's frustrating!

Even worse, though, is my college email. Someone at the medical center shares the same name as me, so if you enter Lastname into the email system, I'm the first of the two of us to pop up on the list, so I got added to some of her email lists. These email lists, though, are about her duties for surgery scheduling, sometimes copies of prescription information being sent from the pharmacy, etc.. These emails contain confidential patient information at times, and although I've replied to a lot of them to tell them I shouldn't be on the list, they persist. I've moved to deleting them immediately upon recommendation from the security/privacy IT guy I talked to. He removed me from all of the set mailing LISTS, but if people accidentally add me manually to the distribution, I can't stop them.

 

And she just signed up for RedBox. Replied to the e-mail.
GE Capital to the spam bin.

 

If you worked out that it's one of three people, seems that it couldn't be too hard to write to those three people (or even call - you mentioned that you knew her phone numbers) and explain.

 

I'll probably end up doing that.

 

You would think that if GE Capital really wants their payment or cares about confidentiality that they would take calls like this a little more seriously.

I think your call to the company is sufficient. You've taken time to notify the company of the error and they chose not to act. I guess I would have tried again and spoke with a supervisor but that is where I stop.

A few years back I moved into a new place. I received mail for the previous occupant from his retirement company. I called the company to report the error and was told that they could not change the address on the account without the permission of the listed person. I actually went farther by using the internet and finding the guys new information. I called again and talked to a supervisor giving them the new address and phone number. They still refused to make the change. I reminded him that they were knowingly mailing out confidential information to the wrong person and asked the supervisor if these mailings contained the person's social security number (I refused to open the letters). My question was met with silence. I suggested that if they can't change the address themselves, they make a call to the owner and recommend the change because all of his current mailings are ending up in the trash for anyone to take.

That was the last envelope I received. Sometimes you just to put the problem into the proper perspective.

 

What a gigantic waste of your time. You know what would have been just as effective? Marking the envelope as "undeliverable" or "addresses has moved" and putting it back in the mail. The post office would have delivered those statements back to the generator and they would have looked for a new address for him.

 

I tried that the first two times. Nothing changed. That is why I called.

 

Still seems like a gigantic waste of time when there's a much easier method at your disposal.

 

I'm not sure what else you would have me do. I tried your method twice before moving on to "wasting my time". It was apparent after the first two attempts that simply returning it to the sender wasn't getting the letters to stop.

I didn't like that I had to take it this far. The only reason I went to the lengths that I did was to avoid a bigger problem down the line. Had someone found and used any of the personal information inside, the first place the police would start their investigation would be where the letters were delivered. Yeah, I could prove that I wasn't responsible but I felt that the actions I took were less of a hassel than being a part of a criminal investigation.

 

What's wrong with keep doing what you were doing? Sooner or later they would have figured it out when things like that get returned to them. They're supposed to anyway, which is why "Return Service Requested" is printed on almost all envelopes of that nature.

Personally I wouldn't have spent that much time and energy on that situation. Email may require a phone call, but the USPS will pick it up from your door without more than a few pen strokes.