Frequently Asked Questions

There are three common reasons why Gmail users think they're receiving someone else's mail. Please select the description that matches your situation below.

Your address is similar but has more or fewer dots (.) or different capitalization.

Sometimes you may receive a message intended for someone whose address is similar to yours but has a different number or arrangement of periods. For example, your address might be [email protected], but the message was sent to a [email protected] While we know it might be unnerving if you think someone else's mail is being routed to your account, this is actually caused by a simple misunderstanding. Here's why:

Gmail allows only one registration for any given username. Once you sign up for a username, nobody else can sign up for the same username, regardless of whether it contains extra periods or capital letters; those usernames belong to you. If you created [email protected], no one can ever register [email protected], or [email protected] Because Gmail doesn't recognize dots as characters within usernames, you can add or remove the dots from a Gmail address without changing the actual destination address; they'll all go to your inbox, and only yours.

If you're [email protected], no one owns [email protected], except for you. If you're getting mail addressed to Homer.J.Simpson@gmail.com, it's likely that someone was trying to send a message to Homer.J.Sampson@gmail.com, or Homer.J.Simpson1@gmail.com, and made a mistake. You might even get messages from mailing lists or website registrations because the person who signed up for them accidentally provided your address. In these cases, we suggest contacting the original sender or website when possible to alert them to the mistake.

When you sign in to your account, you can use any configuration of dots in the 'Username' field. So, if you originally signed up for [email protected], you can sign in with '[email protected]'.

One last thing: Google Apps does recognize dots. If you'd like to have a dot in your username, please ask your domain administrator to add your preferred username as a nickname.

Your address isn't listed at all.

If you don't see your email address in the To: or Cc: fields of the header, the sender has probably mailed you a 'blind carbon copy,' or Bcc:. The Bcc: field isn't displayed in the header of received messages. This means that you won't see your email address at the top of any message you receive as a blind carbon copy.

If you're receiving lots of messages addressed to another Gmail user, another possibility is that someone else has accidentally configured their account to automatically forward mail to you. To see if this is the case, open the full message headers: click the down arrow next to Reply (or More options in Safari), and select Show original. Starting at the top, look for X-Forwarded-For. If you see X-Forwarded-For, then another Gmail user is forwarding mail to your address, and we recommend contacting them to inform them of the mistake. Please note that there won't be any X-Forwarded-For information in the headers if the mail was autoforwarded from a non-Gmail account.

You're receiving spam that's not addressed to you.

The message you received was probably the result of a common practice among spammers called 'dictionary spamming.' Dictionary spammers often use a software application to randomly guess email addresses based on words in the dictionary.

Spammers use these lists of addresses to send mass mailings. If you don't see your address in the 'To:' or 'Cc:' fields of the message, that means you've been sent a blind carbon copy of the spam (your address was entered in the 'Bcc:'.field).

As always, we ask that you help us stop spammers by reporting all spam you receive in your inbox. Just check the box next to the unwanted mail and click 'Report Spam.'

And remember, Gmail will never rent, sell, or share information that personally identifies you for marketing purposes without your express permission. If you'd like to review Gmail's Privacy Policy, please visit http://mail.google.com/mail/help/privacy.html.