Be alert on your email account name

For well over 10 years I have been using gmail with Thomas.Traynor and ThomasTraynor without a problem.  If you check how they resolve names link here you can see how it is done.  I have received emails from others in the past who thought they were contacting another Thomas in Ireland, but, after I point out that I am in Canada they found the real email address of the other Thomas rather quickly.

For the last week my inbox has been flooded with on average a dozen emails a day from another Thomas Traynor who has set up accounts with various merchants for buying items online.  I have checked my credit card and there are no weird billings there.  I also checked online and it appears to be a legit mailing destination.  I have been contacting each online store explaining the issue and for them to stop sending emails to my email account.

Two of the emails from the online stores have received requests to change it to another account and part of the note stated that they 'lost' access to 'thomastraynor'.  Thing is that he never had access to that as I have always had that and used it.  Google is quite good when you create an account and won't let you use one that is in use so I am puzzled on how (or if) he got that email name.  I am very good about checking my email account names as I have five different alerts in Google set up to trigger on my name and various other names (online games) are mentioned and never has it shown up being used in the United Kingdom.

Update 2018-11-11

It has quieted down a lot for my email.  So far there is just one company that is still sending me emails for the person who tries to use my email address.  One of the emails had an 'unsubcribe' link which I used.  The other emails there is no such option.  I have had email conversations with them and they told me there is nothing they can do unless I provide the information used to create the account.  I pointed out I own the email address and didn't create that account so I cannot give them what they asked for.  They told me 'sorry nothing we can do' email back, well they will find out what is going to happen when I get the next one.  I have a bookmark for the OFCOM site in the UK and the Scottish privacy site.  I will be doing a mailing to them detailing the fact that the TSP (Telecom Service Provider) refuses to remove my email address and they are sending private and confidential information to a third party even after that fact was pointed out to them.

Update 2018-04-21

The last company finally stopped sending me the email.  I found the link to the ICO and sent them a note.  They replied back if I had copies of the emails for them to start their investigation.  The telco kept telling me there was nothing to do, but, after the ICO finished the ICO told them to stop sending me the mails as it was a privacy violation. So far after two weeks nothing hit my inbox so it may be good now.  The main thing is to keep trying and if they are a regulated industry to send a complaint to the regulator.