Did you know that there is this whole commercial ecosystem revolving around usernames? Say you’ve registered to Bored Panda using the username Bored Panda. If there weren’t a display name option already on the platform, you’d probably be able to sell that username for a fair price. The same happens with unique email addresses, website domain names and the like—all for the sake of being unique.

However, while this bit of commercial internet trivia sounds fun and smart, there is a catch: if you have, say, an email that includes a very popular name—that is your actual name—get ready for some spam.

More Info: Reddit

Emails, man, you need them for absolutely everything these days. But instead of using yours, ever considered using someone else’s?

Image credits: Burst (not the actual photo)

This one unlucky person has theirs used all too often, prompting some very petty revenge each time they get the chance

Image credits: greenradioactive

In the end, someone gets taught a lesson while the original poster gets to order things and ruin relationships all with the power of email

Image credits: Stock Catalog (not the actual photo)

A Redditor by the nickname u/greenradioactive recently shared on the r/pettyrevenge subreddit something they’ve been dealing with for quite some time. However, the way they deal with it is definitely a devious one.

OP has a short, simple, and seemingly popular name as their email address. A proud moment indeed, but one that comes at a price. You see, random people tend to use OP’s email address as a “throwaway” email of sorts—a temporary, disposable one they use to register for something and forget about it.

This in turn means that OP gets metric (and other kinds of) tons of spam on the regular. However, it’s not all typical spam from shady websites. Sometimes there’s a mistake, one that OP deals with in a civilized way, but others it’s someone registering for a dating app. Or putting the email down on a car dealer contract. Or anything that provides the potential for OP to mess about.

Image credits: Porapak Apichodilok (not the actual photo)

So, a rando from California signed up for a dating app? Easy, OP uses the forgot password function to claim the account and then tell every single match something mean and then delete the account.

A car dealership also got in touch because it had questions about some random guy’s order—specifically, if they wanted some extra features. Sure, include it all, OP’s not paying for it anyway.

OP’s favorite shenanigans were for a car rental someone booked. OP immediately extended the rental for an extra few days and threw in insurance.

Alas, we can’t know for sure the fates of all these people who decided to tempt fate… well, tempt this one person with the right email address. But we can speculate that the results ranged from mildly infuriating to absolutely catastrophic.

Image credits: olia danilevich (not the actual photo)

Well, let me tell ya, you’d be surprised by how common this apparently is as the comment section was raving with stories.

One commenter once got an invitation where folks needed to sign up for something to do at the function they were invited to. The commenter signed them up for cleanup duty, which likely was confusing to the couple who probably got handed random cleaning tools and supplies on the regular.

It can also work the other way around—not necessarily getting someone into trouble, but taking advantage of their lack of typing skills and getting nobody into trouble. All they did was score free Netflix for about a year, all because the account was registered and paid for on their email.

Or, you know, you can do what this person defaults to, and that is one of three things: [1] cancels all tee times, [2] changes the sexual orientation on dating profiles, or [3] responds to business queries with a polite yet stern “don’t do business with this fool who can’t even spell his email correctly.”

Image credits: MART PRODUCTION (not the actual photo)

According to cybersecurity solutions company Tessian, 58% of people have sent an email to the wrong person at least once in their lives. For 20%, this meant severed ties with clients, and for 12% this meant their job. So, mistakes with emails happen quite often.

But if it isn’t a mistake, most likely folks opt for using fake, temporary or just “stealing” other emails for several reasons. Usually, it’s for privacy reasons—folks just don’t want to give out their personal info or don’t want to deal with all of the spam, newsletters and other bits of marketing they might get.

This is besides the convenience of being able to register quickly for a website and not having to manage your own inbox with an extra layer of spam, all the while messing with the company’s marketing metrics if you’re one for sticking it to the man. But that’s beside the point.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on everything you’ve read here today, so why not do that in the comment section below!

And you’d be surprised how many people have the same issue, mostly because their names are so common and they were the first to snatch that address

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