He'll also happily give out BobSmith@gmail to all and sundry (and all and sundry will happily mistype BobSmith@gmail instead of bobsmith8729@gmail) so that Bob receives mail intended for Bob8729.
I get lots of mail for BobSmith0 to my BobSmith@gmail account, most of it destined for the same person in Australia who either doesn't know his email address or doesn't care. Some interesting stuff in there at times.