I have a Gmail account that I rarely use, but it is mine. The Gmail account is barry.schwartz@. But for the past several months, I randomly get emails made out to barryschwartz@, yes, without the dot.

So I figured the people were emailing the wrong person, i.e. not emailing barryschwartz@ but mistakenly emailing barry.schwartz@. I am wrong, they are emailing barryschwartz@, the one without the dot, the one I did not registered.

In fact, Google is clear about dots, saying they don't matter. Here is a screen capture:

Gmail Addresses with Dots

Google is being smart and saying, "Yes, this is you." Google links me to this page, where it describes that "If you created yourusername@gmail.com, no one can ever register your.username@gmail.com, or Your.user.name@gmail.com."

So, I guess you can email me at b.a.r.r.y......s.c.h.w.a.r.t.z@gmail.com, if you want. And, yes, it works, here is a screen shot of me getting a test email sent to that address:

Gmail Emails

The sad part of this is that I cannot reply to this email to tell this company that I am not the Barry Schwartz they are looking for.