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Show HN: Startup with no website - GuerillaClick@gmail.com

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Re: Show HN: Startup with no website - GuerillaClick@gmail.com

#151
post #40

Interesting, I've a few questions as food for thought. - Is it allowed under GMail's TOS? - Have you considered the security implications of having what is presumably a server somewhere in your name clicking on any link that's sent to it? - You say startup - do you have monetization plans? Putting adverts on the associated website perhaps?

Google TOS is pretty broad. However, one of the main factors here is that export controls could quickly come into play. Since Google is US-based, providing this service for those in embargoed countries could get you shut down quickly. They also have a "don't misuse our services" clause and I'm sure this would count as misuse if found.

> providing this service for those in embargoed countries could get you shut down quickly.

How come Google can figure out who and where the interested end-user is when emails are actually send by web apps and clicking is done upon email retrieval (I bet some cron with POP3). Moreover emails from "bad" countries are rather filtered out as spam/scam.

Apart of this thread publicly inviting people it may be also hard to distingush the accout from any busy one. But I guess G may have some pattern matching and rate limits for such sinks.

Re: Show HN: Startup with no website - GuerillaClick@gmail.com

#152
post #106

guerillaclick+eralp@gmail.com guerillaclick+sdfaskdma@gmail.com guerillaclick+111@gmail.com Unfortunately, more and more services are rejecting + e-mail addresses. Either ignoring them, or flagging them as an error. While it's perfectly within the RFC, companies are catching on to the trick. (3M, I'm looking at you!)

Gmail gives you another option - separate using dots. g.uerillaclick@gmail.com The number of options is of course limited but it's still recognized as a separate address while still coming into the same inbox

I've built a few registration systems and always normalize email addresses (remove local part, de-dot gmail addresses) at signup and login.

It helps users who keep trying bobjones@gmail.com when they signed up with bob.jones@gmail.com. Also is pretty good at preventing mass signups using tricks like this.

Re: Show HN: Startup with no website - GuerillaClick@gmail.com

#153
post #5

You can use Mailinator to do this already, you can see all of their inboxes on their website and you can use all of their domains to bypass domain restrictions. For example I might use somethingsilly@bobmail.info and it will be redirected to https://www.mailinator.com/v3/index.jsp?zone=public&query=so...

> You can use Mailinator to do this already While I'm a fan of Mailinator and their approach, I think the feature OP has about auto-clicking verify is unique. But yes, to do this right, you need the multi-domain approach of Mailinator instead of just aliases. Maybe Mailinator has an API or supports POP/IMAP that would make this possible, I haven't checked.

You can easily use one of many opensource self-hosted temporary email projects with APIs. Just check Github.

Receiving email is pretty easy - own domain with MX record and some cheap VPS with Docker. No need to worry SPF, DKIM, DMARC, DSBL - you care about these when you have to send emails from the host.

Re: Show HN: Startup with no website - GuerillaClick@gmail.com

#154
post #23

This is delightfully crazy. Give some random guys with no website your registration record somewhere, allow them to verify your registration as theirs, and then impersonate you, reset passwords, see any communications, possibly log in as yourself and do anything. All this with no recourse. Nigerian spammers moan from envy for such a brilliant self-propelled gullibility filter.

I don't understand what point you're making. Isn't that true of mailinator.com too? Have you never signed up for an account on a service you didn't trust not to spam you?

Re: Show HN: Startup with no website - GuerillaClick@gmail.com

#155
post #23

This is delightfully crazy. Give some random guys with no website your registration record somewhere, allow them to verify your registration as theirs, and then impersonate you, reset passwords, see any communications, possibly log in as yourself and do anything. All this with no recourse. Nigerian spammers moan from envy for such a brilliant self-propelled gullibility filter.

I have first.last@gmail.com and I've had people play poker and lottery and sign up for dating websites with my e-mail address. I've also received confidential information from insurance and building construction companies. It's hilarious.

Interesting that so many people had a similar experience. I guess my name is literally unique.

Re: Show HN: Startup with no website - GuerillaClick@gmail.com

#156
it is a geek idea! i like it.

you still get a website? ``` I will provide a website to see the inbox of your alias. (maybe for services who send your pw in the email, but then you might be better off using other established servers.)

Gmail API is a bit slow so it might take 30 seconds for email to be received on my end, keep in mind while testing! ```

just wondering does it break gmail's terms?

Re: Show HN: Startup with no website - GuerillaClick@gmail.com

#158
post #23

This is delightfully crazy. Give some random guys with no website your registration record somewhere, allow them to verify your registration as theirs, and then impersonate you, reset passwords, see any communications, possibly log in as yourself and do anything. All this with no recourse. Nigerian spammers moan from envy for such a brilliant self-propelled gullibility filter.

If you are worried about your user details getting stolen after signing up with someone else's email- You aren't using this service correctly. The idea is to not give away your email or signup for a website, but get access to that website.

As a reminder, site operators, this is why some sites require you to enter a user/pass to confirm a "verify link".

Re: Show HN: Startup with no website - GuerillaClick@gmail.com

#159
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I typically use a rando address @mailsac.com but then I have to take the 3 steps to visit, enable links, click links. With this tool, I'm saved those 3 steps. Keep in mind, this is strictly for throw-away accounts that require registration

Thanks for seeing the value, after releasing this I got to know some services require session authentication, so without your password (or cookies) the bot cannot verify. I think this was a nice experiment and still usable for many services.

You could let people pass the username/password in as part of the email tag, like:

guerillaemail+myusername-mypassword@gmail.com

As others have clarified, only for complete throwaway accounts obviously. I tested '-' and '!' and those characters appear acceptable as the delimiter. ':' gives a very strange error on send when using gmail.com. Also imagine you'd lose some letter casing along the way.

Really just a fun and terrible idea!

Re: Show HN: Startup with no website - GuerillaClick@gmail.com

#160
post #23

This is delightfully crazy. Give some random guys with no website your registration record somewhere, allow them to verify your registration as theirs, and then impersonate you, reset passwords, see any communications, possibly log in as yourself and do anything. All this with no recourse. Nigerian spammers moan from envy for such a brilliant self-propelled gullibility filter.

I have first.last@gmail.com and I've had people play poker and lottery and sign up for dating websites with my e-mail address. I've also received confidential information from insurance and building construction companies. It's hilarious.

I have tons of this. I really hope the gmail team is working on it. I don't get spam anymore, I get someone with a name similar, but not quite mine's receipt, dealership tune up reminders, directTV announcements, information about going back to get their RN, etc.

Like none of it is spam exactly, just a lot of wrong numbers.

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