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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.
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!
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
Would you recommend this for a non technical person?
I have a similar setup, and no. Once it’s configured, it’s easy peasy, but it would probably be a difficult and confusing process for a non-technical person to get through without help. Addy.io is a great service that a non-technical user shouldn’t have any issue using
i am gonna jump in and say that it depends on how deeply “non technical” you are. if you are already running your own website, then you could likely handle doing your email the way i do. there’s all kinds of info online, that will show you how to do it.
i did check out addy.io, and it seems simple enough to use. looking further into it, there are other services out there too, that offer a similar service, like forwardemail.net.
have a wander around the web, and see which solution feels right for you.
Well, I do consider myself better than the average user. And I've managed to setup my business domain and email. I don't have a problem with these things. My only issue would be if it needs constant troubleshooting or configuration that would require an in depth understanding of how it works.
i think you will find it relatively easy to do. best of luck!
Thanks, I appreciate it!
Thanks, I'll look into it.
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.
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!