What should I do if someone else has used my e-mail address?

[coytoe2]

A Verizon customer used my email address and Verizon's customer support and fraud departments (have told me many times over the last year that they) can do nothing about it.

I see others have cited this issue such as https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/794669

I'd like to become a Verizon Wireless customer but this puts me off.  I can't believe it, but it seems my next step would be to cancel my gmail account.  Sigh.

[vzw_customer_support]

Coytoe2, we would always love for you to join the Verizon Wireless family. I want to make sure that we do everything we can to get your e-mail issue taken care of. So we can get some more detailed information can you please respond back to my Direct Message that I have sent today. Looking forward to working with you.

KevinR_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the "Correct Answer" button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[elliew]

Do you have the option to block email from the Verizon sender? Sounds like you've done you due dilligence and tried to resolve the original problem.     

[coytoe2]

1.

Thank you VERY much, KevinR! I have replied to your Direct Email with the requested info and with a copy of the latest email to me from Verizon for the offending customer.

2.

Incidentally, I noticed when I registered here this morning my email address was not verified (as usually happens on other websites).  I'll comment on this by quoting the last post to the other thread I mentioned above: "Not verifying the emails people use to sign up for accounts" (as is a best-practice on the web) can lead to issues such as this. 

3.

Thank you very much for your reply, elliew, but I think that marking the emails to me from Verizon for the offending customer Spam (or blocking them) in gmail would backfire on mr once I sign up for Verizon myself! 

4.

Oops I mispelled my screenname and it seems unfixable.  (Coytoe2 shoulda been coyote2)

Oh well.

I'll be overjoyed if KevinR can resolve my issue!

coyote

[RushFan2112 · Accepted solution]

If you have a gmail account, just add a . somewhere in your email address.  For example, if your gmail address is firstlast@gmail.com and someone else is using it so you can't register your account then your should register first.last@gmail.com as your email address with Verizon.  Gmail ignores the . and you will get emails.  This is a great way to sign up for websites that may spam you,  you can sign up with firstlas.t@gmail.com at sites and then set up a filter to auto-delete all emails sent to firstlas.t@gmail.com.

[coytoe2]

Thank you very much for your reply, RushFan2112.

However my issue isn't (AFAIK now) that I can't use my email address to signup for Verizon, it's that I can't mark the other person's Verizon emails as Spam if I want to get my own Verizon emails.

So while your info will prove very useful, I don't know that I can use it with my current issue.

[RushFan2112]

If Verizon won't do anything, you should be able to set up a filter in your Gmail to send any email coming from Verizon to your NORMAL email address (the one without the .) to the Trash.  This would block those email for that bad account and let the normal ones come through.

[coytoe2]

@KevinR:

Did it turn out that you could help me?

(After I replied directly to you a couple days ago, that evening I got another email from Verizon to the customer who used my email address.)

coyote

[coytoe2]

*Progress Report*

KevinR of Verizon Support has been responsive and diligent.  (However to this point, he also has not been able to resolve my problem.)

KevinR has repeatedly asked the customer who used my email address (to establish their account) to stop using my email address, but they have not done so.  And it does make sense from a certain perspective that Verizon's policy is to not change customer's data without their consent, however…

Given that (as noted in the thread

https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/794669

I cited in my original post) Verizon allows people to signup without sending a verification email to the email address they provide, Verizon has taken part in their customer's emails from Verizon harassing me.

I'm happy for them to respect the integrity of the account of the customer who is misusing my email address, and have asked KevinR to cancel the customer's account instead if he likes.  No response yet.

KevinR suggested I click the e-mails' "unsubscribe" link…but (another poor practice) the e-mails have no such link and *I* of course cannot login to the customer's account to change their notifications because I don't know their password.

KevinR also suggested marking the emails as Spam, but (as I already mentioned upthread) that would keep me from getting my own email from Verizon if/when I decide to become their customer.

As much as I would really love to avoid needing to cancel my gmail account, it so far still appears that due to Verizon's practices and one offending customer, I will need to.