Story 1)
so a week ago, I got an e-mail from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society thanking me for my $5 donation. The receipt showed that my phone number was 555 something (obviously fake) so I sent them an e-mail saying that I didn't give them $5 and that it was probably a stolen credit card being used on their site to test its validity before being used for more nefarious purposes. (donating small amounts to a non-profit online is akin to buying gas with a $1 pre-auth with a stolen card in the real world)
I got an e-mail today in response. They looked into it and it turns out that after contacting the credit card company they were able to get hold of the legitimate donor, named Micah, who had just given a dummy phone number and what he thought was a made up e-mail address on the form to avoid being contacted by the organization for more followup donations.
Story 2)
on monday I contacted our apartment leasing office and asked for a copy of our lease that they never gave us this past spring when we agreed to stay on another year. So today, i get an e-mail from a corporate leasing company with a link to view and sign my lease online. So I signed on with the credentials provided and began reviewing -- I thought it a little odd that some of the rules didn't jive with my old lease. Then I re-looked at the leasing company, it wasn't my leasing company. It said Micah Murray all over the contract though. I looked back up at the top and sure enough, it had a yahoo.com e-mail address listed on the contract with the same username as my gmail account (which is where they sent this document too.) Some guy named Micah Murray is leasing an apartment in Arizona and they sent it to me by mistake, coincidentally, 2 days after I was inquiring about my own lease.
Kinda sad to realize, in a global community, I do not have a unique name.