3 ms·

I'd be really surprised if Gmail's + behaviour isn't so well known by spammers that they just strip them off?

by willvarfar 11mo ago

neobrain 11mo ago
Conversely, I'd assume this pattern is used rarely enough for spammers to even bother fighting it.
- vladvasiliu 11mo ago
  But I've seen service providers who insisted on creating some account with a valid email who wouldn't accept a `+` it in their forms...
  - edoceo 11mo ago
    My favorite was that I could sign-up with the + address but couldn't sign-in. And the support desk rejected that + address too. The phone support person was confused about that symbol too, what an odd email.
sussmannbaka 11mo ago
even better: those will be spam guaranteed and can just be filtered by rule then
vthriller 11mo ago
Not sure about normalizing recipients' emails but some are definitely aware of it because I've seen spam that asked to "reply back to defi.n.it.ely.not.shady+email@gmail.com" or something.
kevin_thibedeau 11mo ago
This is one of the reasons I switched to a different provider using a custom domain. I can make new addresses in any format I want. There's zero risk of a spammer stripping them down to a base address for the primary account. They also don't get rejected by broken validators.
- prein 11mo ago
  yep, i use fastmail with a custom domain. i have a catch all email set up, so i just register any account on sitename.com as "sitename@mydomain" and it all gets sorted into a catch all folder. I can then run rules if i want it to go into a certain category like "bills" or just straight to the garbage.
- sunnybeetroot 11mo ago
  What’s your plan for when you no longer own your custom domain (think bus factor)? Someone else register your domain and now has access to all your accounts.
  - mouse-5346 11mo ago
    Everyone has their own risk profiles, mine assumes I retain control over my domains and emails. I prepay for them several months in advance to make sure I don't lose ownership. any service provider worth their salt will have a human factor for customer support who can help you if any such issues show up.
    - sunnybeetroot 11mo ago
      Thank you for expanding. Sure you can prepay up to a certain extent. Eventually your domain will be available to others for purchase and therefore your accounts will become vulnerable. Maybe this isn’t an issue if in the worst situation you’re not around but if this could cause chaos for your friends and family I would suggest taking it into account.
      - fsckboy 11mo ago
        >Eventually your domain will be available to others for purchase and therefore your accounts will become vulnerable. what are you talking about? after I'm dead?
        sunnybeetroot 11mo ago

I'd be really surprised if Gmail's + behaviour isn't so well known by spammers that they just strip them off?

neobrain 11mo ago

Conversely, I'd assume this pattern is used rarely enough for spammers to even bother fighting it.

vladvasiliu 11mo ago
But I've seen service providers who insisted on creating some account with a valid email who wouldn't accept a `+` it in their forms...
- edoceo 11mo ago
  My favorite was that I could sign-up with the + address but couldn't sign-in. And the support desk rejected that + address too. The phone support person was confused about that symbol too, what an odd email.

sussmannbaka 11mo ago

even better: those will be spam guaranteed and can just be filtered by rule then

vthriller 11mo ago

Not sure about normalizing recipients' emails but some are definitely aware of it because I've seen spam that asked to "reply back to defi.n.it.ely.not.shady+email@gmail.com" or something.

kevin_thibedeau 11mo ago

This is one of the reasons I switched to a different provider using a custom domain. I can make new addresses in any format I want. There's zero risk of a spammer stripping them down to a base address for the primary account. They also don't get rejected by broken validators.

prein 11mo ago
yep, i use fastmail with a custom domain. i have a catch all email set up, so i just register any account on sitename.com as "sitename@mydomain" and it all gets sorted into a catch all folder. I can then run rules if i want it to go into a certain category like "bills" or just straight to the garbage.
sunnybeetroot 11mo ago
What’s your plan for when you no longer own your custom domain (think bus factor)? Someone else register your domain and now has access to all your accounts.
- mouse-5346 11mo ago
  Everyone has their own risk profiles, mine assumes I retain control over my domains and emails. I prepay for them several months in advance to make sure I don't lose ownership. any service provider worth their salt will have a human factor for customer support who can help you if any such issues show up.
  - sunnybeetroot 11mo ago
    Thank you for expanding. Sure you can prepay up to a certain extent. Eventually your domain will be available to others for purchase and therefore your accounts will become vulnerable. Maybe this isn’t an issue if in the worst situation you’re not around but if this could cause chaos for your friends and family I would suggest taking it into account.
    - fsckboy 11mo ago
      >Eventually your domain will be available to others for purchase and therefore your accounts will become vulnerable. what are you talking about? after I'm dead?
      - sunnybeetroot 11mo ago