Someone has same email address as me??

[LadyX]

I asked for help on Microsoft Community but did not get a reply so I hope someone here knows what's going on.

Anyway, I have created a new Hotmail account yesterday. Right away, I tried adding my newly created Hotmail account on Sparrow for Mac. But I kept having issues, for some reason it says that the login is incorrect (see screenshot). I have entered the correct email and password. I tried several times. I thought it was an issue with Sparrow but I tried adding my old Hotmail account and it worked fine, so it's not the app.

So I then tried adding my new account on the stock Email app on my Samsung phone to check, it worked and I can send and receive emails.

This morning, I got a Facebook message (via Email app on phone) with the subject "Jay, you have 4 messages" (screenshot below). My name is not Jay Lee and I did not sign up on Facebook with my new email and this got me thinking, could it be that someone else is using the same email address as me?? Is this possible? Is this someone also receiving my emails?

 

[TheAppleFairy]

I believe Microsoft recycles email addresses if you don't use them for an extended amount of time. Jay must not have logged in for a long time. Now it's yours.

 

[Gav2k]

As above. You have to log in once every 270 days. If you do not they lock it and on the 360th day it becomes available to others.

There's been a lot of heat when this policy came to light in 2013 but it's in the fine print.

 

[LadyX]

Seriously? I had no idea! Could this be why Sparrow doesn't let me add the account?

Wow I can't believe I chose the exact same email address, same numbers and everything.

 

[Gav2k]

Have you verified the hotmail account? Also you could be waiting for your email address to properly populate the servers hence the fail to log in notification

 

[LadyX]

Yes and I can sign in through the Hotmail website and the Email app on my phone just not Sparrow.

 

[TheAppleFairy]

I am not sure how sparrow works, but can't you do the account reset or something with it? Or "forgot my password" and have them send you a reset link to "your" new hotmail?

 

[Gav2k]

Hold on is this the sparrow email client that was pulled from the app stores?

 

[LadyX]

It was removed? I've been using it for 4 years now. I have Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo accounts on it. They all work fine. Except for this new account.

 

[Gav2k]

It was removed? I've been using it for 4 years now. I have Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo accounts on it. They all work fine. Except for this new account.

17 Feb it was discontinued. So if there is a bug stopping you adding the email address it won't ever be fixed.

 

[LadyX]

Yes but it's weird that it's only this particular email address.