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Anyone not honor the “email+who_is_spamming_me[at]gmail.com” strategy?

8 points by gugagore ↗ HN
I use this strategy in an attempt to know who is selling/leaking my email address, but it is very easily subverted. Does anyone know of code that removes the `+[...]` and the purpose behind such code?

8 comments

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FeistySkink
I prefer [company name]@[my domain]. That way there's nothing to remove. Still most companies that spam do it either through [first name].[last name]@gmail.com or info@[my domain].
RecycledEle
[company name]@[my domain] has been my anti-spam for decades. Just register your own domain name, and create a catch-all email account. Then give out tagged emails to every company. Once in a while I get some idiot who thinks I'm their boss or a scammer because of the email. Imagine getting a call to customer service transferred to AT&T security because they don't like ATT@[my domain].
x7ci
Interesting. I just set this up on my email provider - it was fairly easy to do. Thanks.
phpsecure
Thank you, the advice is helpful for me.
gabelschlager
Most of the time I try it to use it, the website won't allow me to use the '+' in an email or will never send the verification mail to activate my account.
DANmode
They're just regex rules, and unfortunately, they strip them out for exactly the reasons you might guess.

As another commenter mentioned, company@domain.com is difficult for them to get around.

I will add that this tactic has caused additional friction or touches for things it shouldn't have¹, but has finally delivered the desired effect.

¹e.g. insurance offices calling to confirm my email address, customer service people curiously wondering aloud if I work for their company

mitchellpkt
+1. To expand on your friction comment: I’ve been doing unique @myname.com for years and learned quickly to avoid putting the full company name to avoid confusion.

Now, I just use the first 2 and last 2 letters, so for example hackernews would be haws@myname.com. When I go back later to log in, it is easy to re-derive on the spot. And if I forget what an email address corresponds to I can just search my inbox history for that address to find the site registration confirmation or whatever they sent previously.

quickthrower2
If they do block all email to the root, and only accept email to the +