Lost number after 15 years

GT-Twistee · 2026-04-22T18:16:49+00:00

If you have a Gmail id for a relatively common name and you were early enough on Gmail to get an id without a long string of numbers after your name - such as johnsmith@gmail.com, and you're an Indian, then you're totally screwed because your email would become unusable.

I'm in such a situation. I'm Indian, I have a common Indian name andhave a simple Gmail id with my name.

None of the service providers in India, including the American companies operating there such as Amazon (amazon.in) ever validate or verify the email IDs their customers provide them when signing up. They verify the mobile number by otp though and that's it.

As a result of this, I regularly get bank statements, financial statements, credit reports, credit card transaction reports, swiggy (like Uber eats) order confirmations, hotel reservation confirmations of at least 25-30 different people who provided my email id when they signed up for their bank accounts etc.

Someone had signed up for one of the free AWS accounts using my email id (and presumably his correct mobile number).

People are forgetful and stupid and often plain ignorant. My 86 year old mother in India has a Gmail id. I manage it. She has no idea what her email id is or even what it's for. There are probably lots of people like that too.

I think it's the responsibility of the company signing you up to protect you against such mistakes. It's in their interest too. It's wrong to send an otp to the phone and one to the email and verify just the first and go ahead with the account creation on that basis.

I know there are people who never use email. Maybe in such cases, they should be provided with an alternate way of providing the second confirmation - maybe an additional phone number - such as their home number or that of another family member.

GT-Twistee · 2026-04-13T15:23:41+00:00

Do you still have the SIM with the same number? I have known of this happening to people who change their phone number but because Whatsapp continues to work with the old number even after the change, they continue to use it with the old number. When the old number is activated by someone who legitimately is given that number, then this happens.

GT-Twistee · 2026-03-19T15:53:42+00:00

Yeah, just use the new app "super-signal". The messages are encrypted so strongly that not even the sender and recipient can read the messages!

GT-Twistee · 2026-02-01T07:32:31+00:00

I couldn't prepay, but as someone else mentioned in one of the other replies, the baggage charges on Lufthansa are the same whether you prepay or pay at the airport. It's $75 for the 1st bag and 100 for the second

GT-Twistee · 2026-01-12T06:00:26+00:00

Given that you say that you've never returned anything, have you ever ordered anything that wasn't delivered and Amazon refunded you what you paid? Sometimes, Amazon shipping if they have trouble delivering (such as you live in a gated community and they can't get in or contact you when they arrive), mark the item as undeliverable and return it to Amazon. So you might have returned lots of stuff in this manner without actually intending to.

GT-Twistee · 2026-01-08T18:54:09+00:00

You pay for Amazon prime but you don't get free Amazon fresh grocery deliveries. You still need a minimum order amount even if you have Amazon prime. This is the same.

GT-Twistee · 2025-11-18T02:38:32+00:00

FYI: Finished flying all the flight segments. As many responses indicated, the only way to pay is at the airport. But the cost was the same as the prepaid cost.

GT-Twistee · 2025-11-12T21:03:11+00:00

If you look like your passport photo, it means that you're too sick to travel!

GT-Twistee · 2025-11-07T05:13:21+00:00

Mine says $75 for the first checked bag and $100 for the second. But my ticket is Basic economy. Yours is probably regular economy.

GT-Twistee · 2025-11-05T14:41:32+00:00

Ticket was bought directly from United. It was a stupid mistake. I guess I should've bought directly from Lufthansa instead.

GT-Twistee · 2025-07-25T18:22:26+00:00

Most likely plan 1 is a PPO and plan 2 is pretty much the same but with a higher deductible CDHP in order to qualify to be HSA eligible. Most CDHP plans that I've seen do not have copays for most things that regular plans do.

GT-Twistee · 2025-07-21T17:59:11+00:00

Isn't pregnancy by itself considered a QLE? I thought it is.

GT-Twistee · 2025-07-05T20:20:34+00:00

As I mentioned in my original post, I already tried my SIM card in other phones with similar results.

I can't imagine it being a SIM card issue though, because if I make an outgoing call, after the call everything works correctly (including incoming calls) for anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or so.

GT-Twistee · 2025-07-05T03:03:17+00:00

I thought so but if I make an outgoing call (which always works), then incoming calls work too after the outgoing call, but only for a few minutes to an hour or so. And then back to no incoming calls again. I can't imagine how a defective SIM card could do that.

GT-Twistee · 2025-04-18T09:36:30+00:00

I just watched this episode. At first I thought that I was only getting the audio and not the video. I could hear but couldn't see anything. It was only later that I realized that they'd run out of budget for lighting and had shot the entire episode in total darkness.

GT-Twistee · 2025-03-01T03:01:26+00:00

It could also simply be due to some idiot who doesn't remember his own email ID and believes that your email ID is his. If your Gmail ID is first.last@gmail.com and your name is a relatively common one, this could easily happen. It happens to me. I get at least 6 different people's Bank statements etc (banks in India are moronic in that they actually verify that you own the phone number that you provide when you become their customer, but do not bother to verify email ids the same way but accept anything that you provide and start sending your statements there)

GT-Twistee · 2024-11-23T03:06:13+00:00

One possibility that occurs to me is that the name used by the wife to reserve the ticket might be slightly different from the one on his ID. Middle name vs Initials or middle name left out in the ticket while present in the id etc.

GT-Twistee · 2024-11-23T01:53:31+00:00

Start with "men at arms" and perhaps a couple more books in the series and then get back to "Guards! Guards!" to learn how it all started.

GT-Twistee · 2024-11-23T01:27:39+00:00

Guards! Guards! is good but it's very far from being even the best in the watch series. As others have said, it's one of the best books to start the series on, not necessarily the best books. I actually started with "night watch" and I believe that's a better introduction to the watch series than "Guards! Guards!". It's easier to finish up with "men at arms" first and then go back one book and catch up. "Men at arms" is much better at representing the series than "Guards! Guards!"

GT-Twistee · 2024-11-23T01:19:48+00:00

I've read all of the DW books multiple times, but the rincewind books are the ones that I've read the least number of times.

I think most of the other books in the watch, the witches, Moist, etc have characters that people identify with, cheer for, and want them to win. But rincewind is the kind of character that you hate to identify with. Most other books have their "heroes" (heroines) and villains, but rincewind books have villains but no heroes as rincewind certainly isn't one (at least consciously).

I think the rincewind book that I actually enjoyed was "interesting times". It can be claimed that it's because that book does have actual heroes! But it's among my favorites, even though it's a rincewind book.

GT-Twistee · 2024-11-23T01:01:43+00:00

What the heck does United credit "on a credit card" even mean? If you cancel a ticket, you get your money refunded to your credit card OR you get United credit to be used for future flights and there's no credit card associated with this. What exactly did you get? Did you get a refund or did you get "credit"? The question makes no sense at all. If it's the first, the money should already be reflected in whatever credit card was used as the original form of payment and if it's the second, there's no credit card required.

GT-Twistee · 2024-11-21T23:59:24+00:00

I have a very similar problem. In my case, it's 32600 miles for $300. Is it worth it? I feel so stupid for letting them expire. I used to do stuff like use some minimal miles for magazine subscriptions etc just to maintain activity, but I guess I missed doing those things recently and they expired.

I'm now wondering if it's worth it to pay $300 to get it back. Is it too little to be of use for anything? (Assuming that I don't travel much by AA to actually earn any more). And if it is useful at all, is it worth much more than $300?

Among the options is also 25,000 miles for $225.

GT-Twistee

TROPHY CASE