Why am I getting emails meant for someone else?

Getting someone else's email is common, and it's usually an innocent mistake: a typo, a form filled in with the wrong address, or a person who thinks your address is theirs. Sometimes it's something else, such as forwarding you didn't set up, spam sent in Bcc, or a scam dressed up as a misdirected message. This guide explains each cause, how to tell a mistake from a scam, and how to make it stop.

Why am I getting someone else's email?

Most of the time, someone typed your address instead of theirs. Google says that when you get someone else's mail, the sender probably mistyped or forgot the correct address, so if your address is close to someone else's, their mail can land with you (Gmail Help). People with common names and short addresses see this most.

Here are the causes we see most often, and how to recognize each one.

Does Gmail ignore dots in addresses?

Yes, for personal Gmail accounts. Google says "dots don't matter": mail sent to john.smith@gmail.com or johnsmith@gmail.com reaches the same inbox, and no one else can register a dotted version of your address (Gmail Help). So dots are never the reason you got someone else's mail. Google also says messages sent to @gmail.com and @googlemail.com are the same (Gmail Help).

Work and school accounts are different. Google notes that for an account run by an organization, "dots do change your address". At work, firstname.lastname@ and firstnamelastname@ can be two different people.

Why is my address not in the To field?

If your address doesn't appear in the To or Cc line, there are two usual explanations.

• You were in Bcc. Bcc (blind carbon copy) recipients are hidden from everyone else. Gmail warns that spammers sometimes Bcc random addresses to get replies.
• Someone forwards their mail to you. Gmail says to open the original message and look for an X-Forwarded-For header, which means another account is forwarding to yours (Gmail Help).

A sample of what that header looks like (example only):

X-Forwarded-For: old.account@example.net you@example.com
X-Forwarded-To: you@example.com

To read headers without guesswork, paste them into the free Email Header Analyzer, which runs in your browser. Our guide on how to read email headers explains each line.

Is an email meant for someone else a scam?

Usually not, but a "wrong person" email is a known trick. Scammers send messages that look misdirected so you'll be curious, helpful or tempted. Treat every unexpected email as unverified until you've checked it, which matches the FTC's advice to contact a company using a phone number or website you know is real, not the information in the email (FTC).

An example of a scam disguised as a mistake (example only):

From: "Daniel R." <daniel.r.accounts@example-mail.com>
Subject: RE: payment for March

Hi Sarah, sorry for the delay. The updated invoice is attached and
the payment link is below. Please confirm today so we can release
the funds. https://example-pay-portal.com/inv/88213

Red flags that it isn't an innocent mistake:

• It asks you to click, open an attachment, scan a QR code, call a number or "confirm" something.
• It mentions money, crypto, a prize, a delivery fee or an account problem.
• It creates urgency ("today", "final notice").
• The sender keeps writing after you tell them they have the wrong person, or tries to start a friendly chat.

If it fits any of these, don't reply. Report it with your mail app's phishing button; our guide on how to report a phishing email shows where that is in Outlook, Gmail and Apple Mail. For more signs, see how to spot a phishing email.

What should I do with an email meant for someone else?

Handle it calmly and don't use anything in it. This order works for almost every case:

1. Don't click links, open attachments or reset passwords. Even if it looks real, it isn't your account and it might not be a real message.
2. Check whether it's personal or automated. A message from a person can get a short reply. An automated message (receipts, newsletters, alerts) needs a different fix.
3. Tell a real sender, briefly. Google suggests telling the sender they have the wrong address. Something like: "This reached the wrong person. Please check the address you have on file. I've deleted it." Don't quote sensitive details back.
4. Fix automated mail at the source. Use the unsubscribe link from legitimate companies, or contact their support to say the account isn't yours. Gmail notes it can take a few days for mailing list messages to stop.
5. Report spam and scams. Use Report spam or Report phishing rather than replying.
6. Delete it. Don't forward it to friends or keep copies of someone else's personal information.

If it keeps happening from the same sender and you can't stop it, create a filter that archives or deletes those messages automatically. Our guide on how to block spam emails in Gmail, Outlook and iPhone has the steps.

What if someone signed up for an account with my email address?

It happens more than you'd think. Someone mistypes their own address, or uses yours on purpose to avoid giving out theirs. The result is welcome emails, order confirmations and security alerts for an account you never created.

What to do:

• Don't take over the account, even if a reset link would let you. It belongs to someone else, and using it can create legal and privacy problems for you.
• Use the service's "not me" option. Google, for example, says that if someone adds your address to their account for password recovery, you can click the link in Google's email and tell Google you didn't create that account. Your address is then removed from the account's recovery options (Google Account Help).
• Contact the company's support through its website, not through links in the email, and ask them to remove your address.
• Watch for patterns. Lots of sign-up and verification emails arriving at once can be a deliberate attack meant to bury a real alert. See email bombing and subscription bombing.

If you get password reset emails for your own account that you didn't request, that's different: someone may be trying to get into it. Read can someone hack my email without my password and check your account's recent sign-in activity.

Why do I get work emails meant for a colleague?

At work, misdirected mail usually comes from how the mail system is set up, not from typos. Common causes:

• An old alias on your mailbox. When someone leaves, IT sometimes adds their address to a colleague's mailbox so mail keeps flowing. If nobody told you, it looks like random misdirected mail. Our employee offboarding guide covers safer ways to handle a leaver's address.
• Group membership. You're in a distribution list or Google Group that receives mail for a role, such as accounts@ or info@.
• Delegation or shared mailboxes. You have access to someone else's mailbox or calendar and see their messages.
• A forwarding rule set up on another mailbox, possibly by an attacker. Forwarding you can't explain should be reported to IT; see malicious inbox rules and auto-forwarding.
• A catch-all. Some domains accept mail for any address and deliver it to one mailbox. See why catch-all addresses attract spam.
• Autocomplete. Outlook and Gmail suggest addresses as you type, and people pick the wrong person with the same first name.

If you're the admin, trace one of the messages to see how it was routed: use Microsoft 365 message trace or Google Workspace Email Log Search. The trace shows whether the message was addressed to you, expanded from a group or redirected by a rule.

What if I sent an email to the wrong person?

Act quickly and be honest. Ask the recipient to delete it without reading further and to confirm when they have.

Recall rarely helps. Microsoft says message recall in Outlook only works when you and the recipient have Microsoft 365 work or school accounts in the same organization, and only for recipients who haven't opened the message yet. It doesn't work for personal accounts such as Gmail, Hotmail or Outlook.com (Microsoft Support). Once a message reaches an outside address, you can't pull it back.

If the email contained customers' or patients' personal data, tell whoever handles privacy in your organization straight away. Depending on your industry and location, a misdirected email can count as a reportable data breach with a short deadline. We can't give legal advice, so ask your privacy lead or a lawyer what applies to you.

How do I stop getting emails meant for someone else?

Pick the fix that matches the cause:

The FTC also suggests using your provider's filters and marking anything that gets through as spam or junk (FTC).

Next steps

1. Next time it happens, check the To field and the greeting first, then decide whether it's a typo, a sign-up or a scam.
2. Never use links or reset passwords in someone else's mail; use the company's "not my account" option or support page instead.
3. Paste a confusing message's headers into the Email Header Analyzer to see whether it was forwarded or sent in Bcc.
4. If you run email for a business, check for leftover aliases, catch-alls and forwarding rules. For filtering that catches spam and phishing before it reaches anyone's inbox, see how iBlockSpam protects small businesses.