Use of Gmail rejected.

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I have encountered more than one site that has rejected my Gmail user name when, for example, creating a new account. The strangest one was yesterday, as I was changing an existing account from Centurylink to Gmail. As soon as I entered my Gmail userid in the box, it was rejected on the grounds that it was already taken.

I started a support ticket for two items, the first being the Gmail refusal, pointing out that, that the userid was in fact taken, as it was me. Given the large number of Gmail messages sent to my Gmail userid I get every day, it seems to me that that is a valid id, as well as the much smaller number of messages I send without their bouncing back as undeliverable.

The others usually just say “Error,” with which I agree, that they have made an error by not accepting my Gmail userid.

Ideas as to what is the cause, and perhaps also the cure, of this rather frustrating problem? It is particularly frustrating when I encounter it as I am in the process of changing an existing log-on from Centurylink’s email, which, when I have that mail sent to my computer to be used with Thunderbird email, a program vastly superior to Clink itself in terms of what one can do with the mail.

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Over the years I’ve had a few instances of receiving registration/verification emails for services I didn’t/don’t use. It was always some genius who either mistakenly thought my email address (originally created by me) was theirs, or entered any email in the hopes they could get a functional account without a verification step.

With good site design, there will be a verification email that offers a link along the lines of “wasn’t me; don’t want this”. After verifying the email is legit, clicking that link should solve the problem. The site either deactivates/deletes the account or removes your email from it.

When the site design is poor and there is no proper verification step (or if the email got lost in your junk folder), it can be a pain to sort things out. Support teams don’t generally expect someone to contact them saying that they don’t want the account registered to their email address. They have a hard time believing the person who created the account is not the owner of the email. They might even think that you are attempting some sort of social engineering to trick them out of information they shouldn’t share. I’ve been through that more than once.

There’s also the morally gray choice of simply taking control of the account and then deactivating or deleting it yourself. I’m not recommending this, but I would say the person who created the account would deserve the surprise.

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I use a disposable email for registrations. I make them up as I go so I can do it even at sites where I need a quick one. I only have to remember the domain and I stick something in front of the @ symbol that identifies the site.
e4ward
33mail
etc

cheers, Paul

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