I get a ton of misdirected email, but for different reasons.
The first is that I have a common nickname @gmail.com. There are many other users with some variation on that nickname @gmail.com, and people are careless about typos, including suffixes, etc. It's a similar cause to the article, but the username instead of the domain.
The second case is a more interesting one:
I bought an expired domain.
Now I get all kinds of email sent to what used to be legitimate email addresses of the old domain owners. For more than one of them it was clearly their primary email address. I was getting emails related to bank accounts, Netflix, Facebook, etc. I thought about trying to get in touch with those users, but ultimately decided to bounce their email.
It was something I hadn't considered when buying an expired domain, or about my own email addresses, but it's a real problem. Here's hoping my email provider never lets their domain expire.
I get a ton of email to my own gmail, which is just my first initial & last name. I didn't realize there were as many people out there sharing them until I got that email. One that bought a car about 6 months ago, one a cell phone, etc. Since I have no way of contacting these people and it's not a domain where I can block out certain addresses, I will usually get at least one email a week where I go uh, what is this? For a while I kept getting building floorplans in progress from one company as it seemed they all used a common address book with the incorrect email added.
The first is that I have a common nickname @gmail.com. There are many other users with some variation on that nickname @gmail.com, and people are careless about typos, including suffixes, etc. It's a similar cause to the article, but the username instead of the domain.
The second case is a more interesting one:
I bought an expired domain.
Now I get all kinds of email sent to what used to be legitimate email addresses of the old domain owners. For more than one of them it was clearly their primary email address. I was getting emails related to bank accounts, Netflix, Facebook, etc. I thought about trying to get in touch with those users, but ultimately decided to bounce their email.
It was something I hadn't considered when buying an expired domain, or about my own email addresses, but it's a real problem. Here's hoping my email provider never lets their domain expire.