I recently started receiving emails that seem to belong to someone else's Walmart account. To be specific, I got three verification emails followed by a welcome message, all sent to an email address that looks similar to mine but with a period added (like "[email protected]"). It seems odd because Walmart claims there's no account associated with my actual email without the period. To make matters weirder, I also received an order confirmation for an address in Florida, which I don't live at. Since my email isn't linked to any Walmart account, I can't figure out why I'm getting these emails at all. Is there something I'm missing here? Why would emails sent to an address with a period still reach me? Are spam bots involved, or is there a quirk with Gmail?
3 Answers
I feel you! I thought my email was unique until I started getting similar emails. Google's system is really strange—it's like they don’t consider periods as part of the email. It’s odd that someone might have just typed yours wrong or opted to use that method. Just keep an eye out for any suspicious activity, but I don’t think they’re trying to target you directly.
Yup, that’s Gmail for you! You can even add a '+' to your email for sorting purposes. For example, emails sent to "[email protected]" still go to "[email protected]". So, if someone typed your email with a period by mistake, that's why you're getting their emails. Pretty silly how it works, but it's a known feature of Gmail.
You're running into a quirk specific to Gmail. They ignore periods in email addresses, so "[email protected]" goes straight to "[email protected]" without any issue. That means the emails you're seeing could very well be meant for someone else who just mistakenly added a period or used a different variation of your email. It’s a bit frustrating, but it’s just how Gmail works.
That makes sense! I figured there had to be a reason, but it’s still strange to receive someone else’s order confirmation.
Yeah, it’s just really weird! I’ve never experienced anything like this before. At least I’m not at risk of any payment issues.