I own the email address [email protected]. It’s not my main email address, but I use it for various purposes.
It also has a little sentimental value. It reminds me of the days we looked forward to the new additions to Yahoo! every day on our PC’s using Cornell’s Cello browser.
One of the problems with having this account is just the sheer number of people who give it out as their email address. I do not understand why people have their credit card statements, copies of their passwords, intimate photos etc sent to this address. In frustration, I recently wrote to someone:
You know, I am used to other people giving out my email address [email protected] to various web sites, but I am always baffled when someone decides to send scanned copies of their passport to an email account they do not own or control.
What on earth are you thinking?
I have deleted the scanned copies of your passport which you sent to me.
Don’t do that again.
— Sinan
So, I log on to my email tonight, and lo and behold, there are a few messages from DropBox. One of them goes:
Subject: See your photos!
From: Dropbox ([email protected])
To: [email protected];
Date: ...
You uploaded your first photos to Dropbox!Really?!
I mean, really?!
So, Dropbox allows people to set up accounts with any old email address without verifying that they have access to said account.
I tried to find a way on their web site to report such an abuse. But, after I had had enough of this, I just gave up, reset the password and deleted the account. I explained why I was doing that in their response form.
The fact that they let people upload a whole bunch of sensitive files using my email address is reason enough for me not to use the service.