This also does a great job of catching data leaks or willful sale of client and customer data.
I regretted using the main domain for that, as some junk mailers either cotton on to there being a catchall or just chance that many domains have many users with common names, so sometimes I would get several messages for andrew@domain.tld, brian@domain.tld, carl@domain.tld, etc.
These days I use STORENAME@sub.domain.tld which seems to attract a lot less junk, practically none, by the above manner. The catchall on the main domain was replaced by large forwarding list of the addresses I'd got legitimate emails from, with anything else now bouncing as usual.
> Retailers that don't honor the unsubscribe button
It also protects against when retailers are hacked and their mailing list taken, or them selling it on either as BAU or during the fire sale as they go out of business.
I read about that sometimes (or well, rather the less specific one where you’d get generally random spam to your domain), and in over 7 years of doing website@exmaple.org I never had this happen. I wonder what the difference between people like me, and people like you is?
On more recent decades I have seen bots even split by separator, e.g. if prefix.suffix@example.com is published online, they will try prefix@example.com and suffix@example.com.
That is likely someone trying to programmatically circumvent filtering based on catch-all-ish naming conventions, like gmail's support for usernamepart+anythingelse@gmail.com all going to usernamepart@gmail.com and similar facilities offered by other email services.
Sending to <something1>@dom.tld and <something2>@dom.tld as well as <something1><puntuation><something2>@dom.tld seems like a potentially useful heuristic. Though it may create excess false addresses, if spammers care about that sort of thing (that depends on whether the chance hit on real addresses is worth the need to transmit many more messages that will fail/bounce and maybe help train spam identification systems).
It may also depend upon what lists we've ended up on. If only a few junk senders are using the trick, the others deciding it isn't worth it without knowing there is a catch-all isn't worth it and deciding working out there is a catch-all with sufficiently few false positives is too much hassel, then it is quite possible it only happens to some of us.
It could also be that some people have done it to pad out email lists they sell, and so most of the others aren't really using the trick but just parroting the list they have bought. Again, this would explain the issue only being seen by some.
My domain is a .net that has been active for about 23 years at this point, so compared to newer domains its presence in spam mailing lists will have been subject to more fads in the junk industry over time.
If necessary, blag it. Walmart? `wallace.martin@yourdomain.suffix`.
https://gmail.googleblog.com/2008/03/2-hidden-ways-to-get-mo...
Works on outlook.com addresses too.
Unless you automatically file anything without +something as junk, of course.
With that said, it's a niche use anyway, stick to the catch-all on your own domain whenever possible, and for anything else, it's a fringe case anyway.
I have seen this happen with increasing frequency, but I am admittedly terminally online, and of all the sites I visit, it's probably 2 in 10 that don't allow me to use my own domain, but this is again completely anecdotal and based on the sites that I visit and I am not representative of the average user whatsoever.
"not having a gmail account" smacks of "lol you have compuserv? everyone else is on AOL!"
https://app.bchydro.com/BCHCustomerPortal/createProfile.html
>we can't accept generic addresses (e.g. sales@company.com). Please use an individual address (e.g. john@company.com)
Apparently hello@<firstname><lastname>.com isn't individual enough.
which i am now going to route to trashcan.
Your problem is with the hello@.
Do you have any specific examples if it has actually happened for a non-throw-away address? I'll make sure I don't waste time even trying to subscribe to their services!
Example: scorned employee or spouse, they redirect or copy email to x address, and they gain access to accounts via that.
"That could never happen."
It's happened plenty of times that it's a consideration for a lot of major institutions, and it's happened enough that the radio and bus stops in the UK have ads warning people of the signs of financial abuse.
That's without even getting into people not having automatic renewal set on their domain and losing the domain.
But I got this error when updating my residential account.
Since when did companies get to decide what is or isn't a valid email address?
I almost want to experience this, now, just so I can give them a hard time about it.
Are these companies really unaware that lots of individuals have their own domains for personal use?
I do understand where you're coming from though. I remember the days of setting up my first ever domain via post in the UK! I still have the letter lmao.
I don't follow. That reasoning would mean that if you use a gmail account, for instance, that isn't a "personal" email address either. It seems to me a personal email address is an email address you use for personal communications as opposed to business communications.
Where that address is hosted, or what domain its on, isn't relevant to the question.
Using different emails or addresses or different cards is not illegal
But the steps people take to get a discount... He could probably just straihgt ask for a discount and get it anyway without making a new registration.
Case in point. ChatGPT will not accept any masked email from fastmail.
I tried multiple traditional domains. No luck. The error was something to the effect "try later, too much traffic" something or other. (Hiding behind public perception, slick). This went on for days.
One day, after the 20th try...on the next second, I finally relented and used my google workplace email... (which ironically enough is not very liked , particularly by banks, since its not a traditional dot com domain). That worked immediately.
Less often than you’d think. Though I had one legal department write me, and a confused music label owner with a by-mail order process ;)
I really don't care about that. If anyone questions it I'm honest: “it lets me filter messages into folders/tags so I can prioritise easily, and it lets me easily block your company if it sends too much or sell my details on”. I once had someone (an in-physical-store “signup and we'll send you some vouchers” deal) refuse to accept such an address to which my response was “Fair enough, but if you won't take that I'm not signing up, you aren't getting other contact details out of me”. Other than that one example I've had no trouble in this regard, the only other significant reactions I've had being something along the lines of “I might have to start doing that”.
Never let commercial interests embarrass or guilt you into behaving in their favour!
I used a sub-domain for the catch all which has one or twice over the years caused an issue due to bad validation, not liking the extra “.” unless it is near the end like in .co.uk, at which point I step away because a company that can't deal with a perfectly valid email address domain part probably can't store anything securely!
> Most stuff that comes from email leaks gets caught but the spam filter already.
It isn't just leaks, it is when the company itself sends too much or gives your details to its parent/child/partner companies (most likely there was a non-optional, or at least default-on, checkbox that give them permission to do this). That sort of thing is less likely to be caught by general spam filters, though admittedly the volume or that is likely rather lower so the irritation likewise.
everyone is hip to the dot separation and + of google et al. it does nothing. good luck getting me to look at genewitch@mydomain emails, since i have used that exactly zero times.
That's not a problem. I look weird anyway.