HT4864 Why did Apple give me an iCloud address which is already used by someone else?

Question

Hi.
Just set up my iCloud account and was given the [email protected] by default. I thought I would try and test this address and sent a few emails to it. As time went by I was still waiting to see these test emails and still received nothing. The next day I receive an email from a person with the same icloud address that I was given, telling me that he has this already!
Rather confusing so I have had to set up an alias to get round the problem. Question is as my title says...why give me this address in the first place?
Comments appreciated...

Answer 1

Look at the source of some of those messages  (View/Message/Raw Source).  It might give you a better idea about where they originated and where they've been. If it looks like they are originating from your computer, you might have a problem.
It is a simple matter to spoof someone else's email address or use a fake email address.  I've received spam that was ostensibly from myself and I am always receiving spam from random but real-looking email addresses. If a rejection is sent to the "originating" email address, I imagine that would go to the spoofed address.