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Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

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Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#71

Post by spuz »

rockyj wrote: post #41
tialaramex wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't. You get email because somebody either typo's their similar address or they simply think that's their address when it isn't.

Not sure, I contacted this person, since I got their phone number from one of their emails (e.g. they registered for a hotel). I specifically asked them if they made a typo, according to them they have been using this email for years (maybe they lied but why would they).

Either that email address sends mail to your inbox or theirs - there's no way it could be some mix of the two.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#72

Post by davinic »

moviuro wrote: post #34
jumhyn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using this trick for a while (usually 'firstlast+per_service_identifier') and I've encountered more than a few systems which erroneously claim that any email address containing a '+' is invalid.

That's why I now own my domain, and added the first([\.-]suffix)?@last.tld -> first@last.tld mapping at my provider. For selfhosting, there's `recipient_delimiter = +-.` in postfix' config. [0] The most infuriating ones are those where you can subscribe with the '+', but the unsubscribe function errors on it. [0] https://try.popho.be/email.html

Also in many cases I am allowed to proceed with the +, but never receive confirmation emails because the sending system chokes.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#73

Post by jeffbee »

caseysoftware wrote: post #12
joncrane wrote: post #4

What about + signs? That's the trick I use.

In theory, providers/servers should ignore everything from the + to the @ so that should work just about everywhere else. And since most forms don't filter that out, you can make numerous "unique" addresses connected to a single one. Now odds are, someone is going to respond with the one service where the + becomes significant..

That isn't the theory. There are almost no rules for the local part of an email address and you must not attempt to "validate" them. Whether a '+' terminates the user name or means nothing is entirely up to the domain operator.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#74

Post by Spivak »

dave84 wrote: post #58

I spent far too much of my time trying to explain this to Humanity.com’s support after someone created an account using a dotless variant of my email. I didn’t want to freeze the guy out of his account as I imagine he was using it for shift work notifications but in the end they just told me to change the password. Their support repeatedly insisted that gmail was broken and I should contact Google.

Because this is really Google's problem. If someone gives you an email address you're not supposed to touch anything before the '@' and assume that if the inboxes aren't exactly identical then they are separate addresses. Because on some (most) mail servers they will be separate.

Humanity is guilty of not actually verifying ownership/control of the inbox before letting the person attach it to their account but they were absolutely right to treat it as a separate address.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#76

Post by knorker »

Santosh83 wrote: post #6

I have been getting financial emails from several people for many years at my GMail ID. They apparently have given my address but without the dot. But what mystifies me is how these people keep going for years without ever realising they aren't getting account transaction emails (from their banks), notifications of stock trades, even OTP emails etc. How is it possible for people to use these services for years withou…

I've sent a physical letter, when I got an electricity bill with a home address.

A week later I got an apology email, and the incorrect emails stopped.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#77

Post by justusthane »

searchableguy wrote: post #65
bitbang wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same exact issue. Especially with people from Africa for some reason. I get a lot of stuff from 3 people from Kenya, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Most everything there is managed by phone, and they just use my email as a throw-away address. The guy in South Africa has a collections agency after him. The guy in Kenya likes to order food delivery quite a bit. I occasionally change his order to extra spicy. The guy in Zi…

I don't receive any junk mails anymore after switching to my custom domain.

It’s weird, but that’s been my experience too. I switched off Gmail (where I got tons of spam, although most properly caught by the spam filter) several years ago, and have received fewer than 200 spam emails in total since switching. I know this because my new host won’t allow the personalized spam filter to be enabled until you’ve received 200 spam.

I’m not at all careful to keep my email address hidden on the internet either.

It never occurred to me that it might be due to being on a custom domain. I figured either I was just lucky, or that there’s less spam these days.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#78

Post by Spivak »

jeffbee wrote: post #73
caseysoftware wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory, providers/servers should ignore everything from the + to the @ so that should work just about everywhere else. And since most forms don't filter that out, you can make numerous "unique" addresses connected to a single one. Now odds are, someone is going to respond with the one service where the + becomes significant..

That isn't the theory. There are almost no rules for the local part of an email address and you must not attempt to "validate" them. Whether a '+' terminates the user name or means nothing is entirely up to the domain operator.

The exception being when you know that the domain operator supports RFC5233 then you're allowed to be aware of subaddresses.

Re: Dots don't matter in Gmail addresses

#80

Post by justusthane »

LatteLazy wrote: post #20
Santosh83 wrote: post #6

I have been getting financial emails from several people for many years at my GMail ID. They apparently have given my address but without the dot. But what mystifies me is how these people keep going for years without ever realising they aren't getting account transaction emails (from their banks), notifications of stock trades, even OTP emails etc. How is it possible for people to use these services for years withou…

You can filter your gmail based on the TO field (so anything without the dot goes to spam) if you like. I've done the same thing myself intentionally: I give the dot-less version to sites/companies where I need to receive an email or two (account confirmation etc). Then I manually grab them from spam and then forget the whole thing knowing I'll never see the other crap they send me. Hope that helps, as someone with a…

You can also append “+whatever” to the username part of your gmail address and filter it that way.

E.g. johndoe+mailinglist@gmail.com

Unfortunately some services won’t accept that as a valid address.

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