Mistaken Identities, Revisited

[dewline]

This morning, I got a note in my GMail account with the sender flagged as "US Concealed Online".

It is the latest of several instances per day that I have been mistaken for other people sharing my personal name-family combination over the years since getting an e-mail account. There have been e-mails seeking assorted other published authors; some from a Home Depot location in Ohio seeking the renewed custom of a nearby, other Dwight Williams; a few seeking a "private military contractor" also sharing my name.

Plugging my name into say, Google or Duck Duck Go for example, gets me hundreds of other named-alike people. Doctors, actors, end-credits production staffers, writers, athletes, fugitives, convicts, and on the list goes. I'm nowhere near either the best- or least-known of my ilk. There is comfort in this at the moment. Some amusement, some consternation, but also comfort.

Your kilometrage will vary.

Comments

[jhetley]

That "US Concealed" thing is broadcast spam, not really anything to do with mistaken identity.

[dewline]

You're probably right about that. So I'm going to keep on deleting those.

[mordorbot]

I'm literally the only person in the world with my name, which is good and bad.

[ffutures]

I'm lucky, there are only about ten with my name with any sort of online presence - I get email for a couple of them occasionally, but it's been a while so hopefully people have got their acts together. The worst was the film production guy - also living in London, also working in creative areas, etc. etc. - and ex-directory and no obvious email address. I had phone calls, emails and at least one letter for him...

[supergee]

I had a prep school classmate named Dwight Williams. Last I heard, he was a doctor.