Two people with the same email address, exactly the same.

Question

I have been receiving emails to my account using the same email address, the other recipient is in America and seems to run a business, the emails that I have received are pertaining to that business. There is no difference in the email address so the theory that two people cannot share the same email address cannot be true in this case. I have had my address for a very long time. A positive answer would be good.

Answer 1

Two people cannot have the exact same Outlook.com/Microsoft email address. The email system does not allow duplicate addresses on the same domain (for example, two different people both having ******@outlook.com).

What is happening is one of the following:

1. Very similar addresses are being confused
   The other person’s address may differ slightly (for example, different domain such as @outlook.co.uk vs @outlook.com, or a small spelling difference). If that person gave out the wrong address (yours instead of theirs), senders will deliver their business mail to the wrong mailbox (yours), even though only one mailbox actually exists.
2. Someone is using your exact address by mistake
   A business, service, or contact may have incorrectly recorded your address as theirs. In that case, all those messages are legitimately being delivered to the only mailbox that matches that address: yours. The other person does not have a separate mailbox with that same address.
3. Account confusion, not duplication
   Microsoft accounts can be associated with multiple aliases and different sign-in identities, but there is still only one mailbox per email address. As confirmed in the referenced Q&A, it is “100% impossible for two people to have the same address.”

Practical steps:

1. Verify the exact address
   Check the full “To” line in the misdirected messages and confirm character-by-character (including dots, numbers, and domain) that it is exactly your address.
2. Contact the senders
   Reply to the businesses or services sending those emails and let them know they have the wrong email address on file for that customer. Ask them to correct it.
3. Check rules and forwarding
   Sign in to Outlook on the web and review:
   • Mail rules: Settings → Mail → Rules to ensure nothing is redirecting or copying unexpected mail.
   • Forwarding: Settings → Mail → Forwarding to confirm your mail isn’t being forwarded elsewhere.
4. Check account activity
   Review recent sign-in activity at https://account.live.com/activity (as suggested in the Q&A) to ensure there are no unfamiliar successful logins. If anything looks suspicious, change the password and enable two-factor authentication.
5. If needed, create a new alias for sign-in
   If the address is widely misused and becomes a nuisance, one option is to add a new alias to the Microsoft account and use that alias for sign-in and important communications, while still keeping the old address active only for receiving mail.

There is still only one mailbox for that exact address; the issue is misaddressed or misconfigured mail, not two separate people sharing the same Outlook.com email address.

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References:

• my outlook email is not delivered - Microsoft Q&A