I took was an early adopter of gmail and I imagine a person could guess what my email address is, especially if I said I keep forgetting my HN passwords.

Misplaced periods give me all sorts of other people's emails - new cars, new mortgages, new bank accounts, new home purchases that are not in my name or identity (based on the names I understand the confusion) - all sorts of things that I'm not doing IRL. Sometimes I try to reach out to the sender and get them to correct the email address, sometimes I just unsubscribe