i own a domain, and have a catchall account which forwards to a single address.
any time i sign up for a service, i use their business name as the prefix.
for example : i decide to go shop at a store called Mold Gravy, and the clerk tells me i can save 15% on today’s purchase by giving them my email address. i tell them it’s moldgravy@mydomain.com.
this keeps my actual main email account from getting polluted, and also if i notice an increase in spam, i can see which company either sold my fake email address, or were compromised, and the i can simply block it.
it costs $10/yr for a domain name, and another $5/month for hosting. well worth it.
ETA : there’s a lot of really great suggestions here, not only in response to me, but also in this whole thread!
I do the exact same thing, except instead of paying monthly for hosting, I pay $12/year for addy.io. Super reliable service and I can easily manage my email aliases with their phone app.
I do the same but also have a few trap addresses nobody sane should see or email to, but is easy for scrapers to grab. Easy way to train the spam filter.
I’ve done this as well for a number of years (probably close to 5 at this point) and have only noticed one service that got hacked and my domain got leaked. No spam at all really, but I’ve stayed on top of unsubscribing to all marketing emails
some interesting points in this article, but none that are dealbreakers for me continuing the way i currently handle my email. the one example of : “your email is Hilton? do you work here?” typically no employee actually cares enough to ask that question. i have been running my email this way for 20 years (ish), so my sample size is large enough to suggest my results are reliable.
i own a domain, and have a catchall account which forwards to a single address.
any time i sign up for a service, i use their business name as the prefix.
for example : i decide to go shop at a store called Mold Gravy, and the clerk tells me i can save 15% on today’s purchase by giving them my email address. i tell them it’s moldgravy@mydomain.com.
this keeps my actual main email account from getting polluted, and also if i notice an increase in spam, i can see which company either sold my fake email address, or were compromised, and the i can simply block it.
it costs $10/yr for a domain name, and another $5/month for hosting. well worth it.
ETA : there’s a lot of really great suggestions here, not only in response to me, but also in this whole thread!
I do this. It’s excellent, no regrets. You can use sublevel domains for more organization
Etc, so it’s easier to set alert and category filters. For instance I disable new mail notifications for shopping.domain addresses
If I know a email will truly be temporary, then I just one of those 10 minute email services.
gonna have to see about perhaps implementing this…
I do the exact same thing, except instead of paying monthly for hosting, I pay $12/year for addy.io. Super reliable service and I can easily manage my email aliases with their phone app.
ooh! the cheapskate part of me likes this option!
I do the same but also have a few trap addresses nobody sane should see or email to, but is easy for scrapers to grab. Easy way to train the spam filter.
Got any examples?
Genius!
Would you recommend this for a non technical person?
Did this forever first with Google, at least them I’d know instantly who sold my info.
Now I do the same with my mailbox.com account, and delete the aliases occasionally.
Yooo this is actually genius.
I’ve done this as well for a number of years (probably close to 5 at this point) and have only noticed one service that got hacked and my domain got leaked. No spam at all really, but I’ve stayed on top of unsubscribing to all marketing emails
https://www.notcheckmark.com/2022/06/catch-all-domain/
(currently not reachable, archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20240804081128/https://www.notcheckmark.com/2022/06/catch-all-domain/)
some interesting points in this article, but none that are dealbreakers for me continuing the way i currently handle my email. the one example of : “your email is Hilton? do you work here?” typically no employee actually cares enough to ask that question. i have been running my email this way for 20 years (ish), so my sample size is large enough to suggest my results are reliable.
still great food for thought, though!
True, and I’m happy that you didn’t take it as criticism. Just wanted to add another perspective :)
can’t learn new things, if other perspectives are angrily dismissed!