People who use the internet and email know about spam – those unsolicited messages in your inbox consisting of dubious advertising, demands to disclose your personal information, or requests to send money to an African prince.
However, when Reddit user CrazyIslander noticed there was an increase in these pesky nuisances, he realized that many of them were being redirected by another person. Eventually, the guy managed to track them down and ask them to stop, but his attempt to resolve the issue in a civil manner was ignored.
So he stepped up the measures. Continue scrolling to read his post from the subreddit 'Petty Revenge,' detailing the lengths CrazyIslander went to in an attempt to regain his peace of mind.
Most people find spam annoying but consider it an unavoidable side effect of using email
Image credits: Justin Morgan (not the actual photo)
This guy, however, decided to fight it
Image credits: Tima Miroshnichenko (not the actual photo)
Image credits: CrazyIslander
We got in touch with CrazyIslander and he kindly agreed to have a little chat with us about the whole ordeal.
"Simply put, [stuff] happens, and having an email address as straightforward as mine is, you have to expect that it will happen sooner or later," the Redditor told Bored Panda.
"I will occasionally get emails from people (both male and female) who share the same first initial and last name as I do. G-Man was the exception, though. It happened with him a lot."
CrazyIslander highlighted it was mostly trivial emails that he had been getting, such as newsletters and straight-up spam.
"It was rare that I got any personal emails that were meant for him, so it was more just a nuisance having to unsubscribe myself from whatever he had gotten signed up for."
"But as I said in my initial post, I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and assumed that either G-Man (or someone else) was perhaps making a typo with the email address," CrazyIslander noted. But as we just learned, that wasn't the case.
"Had I found information that allowed me to call G-Man, I absolutely would have," he added.
"Whenever I could, I have reached out to people via email, text, and phone before when an email arrived that wasn’t intended for me. I once received an email for a gentleman named Richard (same last name) that contained enough information in it that I managed to track him down, so I called him."
Now that all this time has passed, CrazyIslander can't recall the specifics of that particular instance, but "the email seemed important enough that it warranted me reaching out to him to let him know about it," which the intended recipient appreciated.
"When I emailed G-Man to advise him that the emails were going to a real person, it was replied to with apologies, so I assumed that it would be the end of the things," CrazyIslander pointed out once again.
The Redditor could've never predicted the thriller that was awaiting him. "I'm only speculating, but I think my revenge tactics had a very long-lasting effect on G-Man's behavior. The emails I receive that are addressed to him are far and few between compared to what they were. I'm sure once the physical mail started arriving at his place, he realized the severity of his continued stupidity."
CrazyIslander hasn't really changed his internet habits or how he protects his email and personal information. "Ironically, I used to work in IT myself, so I've always been aware of how to take precautions guarding personal info while browsing the internet." After all, pretty much all of this was caused by good old human error(s).
Spam continues to be an ongoing challenge for internet users
Today, spam is a term covering a wide variety of cybersecurity threats and unwanted messages by email on your laptop, tablet, or other device.
Estimates of its prevalence vary, largely because people define it differently.
Some surveys place the percentage of email spam at around 45% to 50%, while others say it can be as high as 85%.
The fundamental characteristic of spam is that it's unwanted, meaning the recipient, just like CrazyIslander, hasn't granted permission to receive the content.
Even though most email services today filter for spam, it keeps constantly evolving.
Image credits: Stephen Phillips(not the actual photo)
What to do if you too are getting someone else's emails
If you are facing the same problem as CrazyIslander but aren't ready to go nuclear, one way you can make your life easier is to set up canned replies so you don't have to type the same message every time you want to respond to the senders.
Gmail has a template feature where you can quickly save one:
- Click on the gear icon, then select Settings;
- Go to the Templates section on the Advanced tab;
- Select the Enable button, then Save Changes;
- Compose a new message, writing something along the lines of, "Thank you for your email, but unfortunately, you have the wrong email address";
- On the bottom row of icons in the compose window, click the three dots;
- Choose Templates, then Save draft as template, and name it;
- Now when you write a new email, you can click on the three dots in the compose window and select the template you’ve made.
And in Outlook:
- Compose a new email with your canned response'
- On the File tab, choose Save As and name it;
- Next time you compose a new message, choose the Canned Responses button and select the one you’d like to use.
If that doesn't stop the onslaught of unwanted emails, another possibility is to set up filters in your inbox. This works if you tend to get messages from the same people but keep in mind it isn't going to stop new wayward emails, so you'll need to continue adding people to your "Not For Me" filter.
Here's how to do it in Gmail:
- Click on the gear icon, then select Settings;
- In the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab, scroll down and click Create a new filter;
- Put the person’s email you want to filter in the "From" field in the box that pops up and hit Create filter;
- Choose the box to delete or archive emails from that person, then click Create filter.
And in Outlook:
- Click the gear icon, then select More mail settings;
- On the Outlook Options page, choose Customizing Hotmail, and then Rules for sorting new messages;
- Click New, and then enter the name of the sender you want to filter;
- Choose the action you’d like to happen (like deleting the email), then hit Save.
The last option is to change your point of view. As annoying as it can be to receive messages for someone else, you can view them as a sort of gift, your very own version of reality TV email, which provides glimpses into their lives and personalities. The best part is that you, just like CrazyIslander, get to decide how far you want to take them.
Image credits: Krsto Jevtic (not the actual photo)
As his story went viral, the original poster (OP) joined the discussion in the comments
People eagerly reacted to his petty revenge and shared tips on how it could be made even better
Some even responded with their own similar experiences
