4 ms·

Is it still necessary to obfuscate email addresses? Mine isn't and I get around 50 generic spam emails per month to gmail.

ale42 2y ago
I think that nowadays most spam lists come from data breaches and address-collecting malware. It's cheaper than running a bot to scan the web for addresses. We get spam on addresses that were never published online.
- RaoulP 2y ago
  I think so too. And I think the majority of data breaches that have lead to spam for me are from ages ago, from random services I signed up for as a teenager. For a few years after that I did the "+" Gmail alias thing, to try to filter and catch companies. But I realised that's easy and obvious to strip, so it wasn't worth the effort (although I have caught PayPal leaking my email somehow).
  - ale42 2y ago
    If you self-host your email, you can use "." as a delimiter instead of the "+". People would already need to know they can strip that part...
    - RaoulP 2y ago
      Sounds good! I might go even further and just use a custom address for each service, i.e. paypal@example.com or something. But self-hosting email is an adventure I'm nervous to embark on.
      - nobody9999 2y ago
        >Sounds good! I might go even further and just use a custom address for each service, i.e. paypal@example.com or something. Which is exactly what I do. As soon as I see spam sent to any particular email address, I know who it is that leaked the address and I can block it without issue. >But self-hosting email is an adventure I'm nervous to embark on. Why are you nervous about it? I've been doing so for decades and haven't had many issues at all. There are a bunch of all-in-one solutions like mailinabox[0] (I roll my own, but as I said, I've been doing this for decades) and others which would likely make things simpler for you. Go for it! You won't be disappointed. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail-in-a-Box https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail-in-a-Box
      - samatman 2y ago
        Anecdotally, sending mail to example.com from example@mydomain.com can cause a whole host of human-factors problems which can be eliminated with something like RaoulPtoExample@mydomain.com.
      - steve_rambo 2y ago
        Don't, there are many smaller email providers that will take that load off your shoulders for a small fee. I've been using purelymail and have had good experience with it, and heard good things about migadu and fastmail. The latter two are more well known and better staffed, but also expensive. I've been using similar aliases for years (paypal@domain.tld, ebay@domain.tld, etc), but make sure you have a contingency plan for when you're no more. I've received lots of account info from previous owners of the domain by setting up a catchall mailbox. We will obviously not care, but when someone takes over your account, they might use it to do harm to others (spam or fraud or whatever else).
martyvis 2y ago
Is that all. I get around 70 genuine spam emails to my Gmail account every day now (all detected correctly by Gmail)
- tempestn 2y ago
  I get a similar volume, and gmail likely detects almost all of them. Problem is, it also falsely detects the occasional non-spam message, so I do need to periodically scan through the spam box, which is a bit of a pain when it contains hundreds or thousands of emails.
RaoulP 2y ago
I think this is a valid question. I see lots of effort at obfuscation but don't know if there's still a need. I barely get spam and have a bigger issue with false positives in my spam folder. On the other hand I don't think there are many pages on the web that display my email address, so I'm curious about others' experience.
sitzkrieg 2y ago
it isnt but people like to make a problem of it with elaborate whatifs

ale42 2y ago

I think that nowadays most spam lists come from data breaches and address-collecting malware. It's cheaper than running a bot to scan the web for addresses. We get spam on addresses that were never published online.

RaoulP 2y ago
I think so too. And I think the majority of data breaches that have lead to spam for me are from ages ago, from random services I signed up for as a teenager. For a few years after that I did the "+" Gmail alias thing, to try to filter and catch companies. But I realised that's easy and obvious to strip, so it wasn't worth the effort (although I have caught PayPal leaking my email somehow).
- ale42 2y ago
  If you self-host your email, you can use "." as a delimiter instead of the "+". People would already need to know they can strip that part...
  - RaoulP 2y ago
    Sounds good! I might go even further and just use a custom address for each service, i.e. paypal@example.com or something. But self-hosting email is an adventure I'm nervous to embark on.
    - nobody9999 2y ago
      >Sounds good! I might go even further and just use a custom address for each service, i.e. paypal@example.com or something. Which is exactly what I do. As soon as I see spam sent to any particular email address, I know who it is that leaked the address and I can block it without issue. >But self-hosting email is an adventure I'm nervous to embark on. Why are you nervous about it? I've been doing so for decades and haven't had many issues at all. There are a bunch of all-in-one solutions like mailinabox[0] (I roll my own, but as I said, I've been doing this for decades) and others which would likely make things simpler for you. Go for it! You won't be disappointed. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail-in-a-Box https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail-in-a-Box
    - samatman 2y ago
      Anecdotally, sending mail to example.com from example@mydomain.com can cause a whole host of human-factors problems which can be eliminated with something like RaoulPtoExample@mydomain.com.
    - steve_rambo 2y ago
      Don't, there are many smaller email providers that will take that load off your shoulders for a small fee. I've been using purelymail and have had good experience with it, and heard good things about migadu and fastmail. The latter two are more well known and better staffed, but also expensive. I've been using similar aliases for years (paypal@domain.tld, ebay@domain.tld, etc), but make sure you have a contingency plan for when you're no more. I've received lots of account info from previous owners of the domain by setting up a catchall mailbox. We will obviously not care, but when someone takes over your account, they might use it to do harm to others (spam or fraud or whatever else).

martyvis 2y ago

Is that all. I get around 70 genuine spam emails to my Gmail account every day now (all detected correctly by Gmail)

tempestn 2y ago
I get a similar volume, and gmail likely detects almost all of them. Problem is, it also falsely detects the occasional non-spam message, so I do need to periodically scan through the spam box, which is a bit of a pain when it contains hundreds or thousands of emails.

RaoulP 2y ago

I think this is a valid question. I see lots of effort at obfuscation but don't know if there's still a need. I barely get spam and have a bigger issue with false positives in my spam folder. On the other hand I don't think there are many pages on the web that display my email address, so I'm curious about others' experience.

sitzkrieg 2y ago

it isnt but people like to make a problem of it with elaborate whatifs