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Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam

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Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam

#111

Post by jader201 »

david_draco wrote: post #99
LinuxBender wrote: post #36

Is the fear of "people selling your email to spammers" a modern myth, or are spam filters that good? Email databases for sale are not always for spam or malware. They are often used for tracking and cross marketing calculations. Placing a companies name in the address will signal a canary and they may likely filter your contact out of their database or at least flag it and treat it differently. I've been using email…

Someone should sign up for all the mailing lists with a email address used nowhere else and track the cross-mailings. Maybe a bubble babble hash of the company name as the email prefix, and a big mailer like gmail or protonmail as the server. When the email is leaked and the company does not inform the user, report the company via GDPR.

> Someone should sign up for all the mailing lists with a email address used nowhere else and track the cross-mailings.

I may be misreading your comment, but if not, it sounds like the OP (of this Tell HN) did exactly that.

Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam

#113

Post by nibbleshifter »

f4c39012 wrote: post #96
adamfeldman wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly my use-case and experience after many years of custom catch-all'ing. I've noticed a couple breaches, and also a few unexpected transfers of my email address between semi-related parties. Just once it appeared an address was sold via a marketing list, after filling out a lead-form for a free online conference hosted by multiple companies that you've seen on HN. Surprisingly, unsubscribing tends to stop…

Slightly easier* than running a domain, i've had luck with myemail+CompanyX@gmail.com when signing up to CompanyX. Gmail handles the '+' transparently (in the same way as it ignores '.') and delivers the email to myemail@gmail.com. It is fun to receive a survey about "an anonymous company you have used in the past"... sent to myemail+uber@gmail.com. *yet less reliable, '+' in email addresses isn't always accepted, an…

Tbh with GSuite + a 5$ domain I get catch alls for minimal effort.

I used to use + addressing schemes, but abandoned it for the reasons you mentioned (websites breaking horribly).

Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam

#114

Post by aendruk »

denton-scratch wrote: post #81
thewebcount wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, you don't sign up for anything, but are automatically added to mailing lists against your will just for the sin of purchasing something. I never want to get emails from any company just because I purchased 1 item from them. Most people I know tell me they feel the same way, but instead of unsubscribing, they just mark it as spam and eventually it stops showing up in their inbox. If I want emails fro…

> just for the sin of purchasing something Ah: prior commercial relationship. That's not spam, unless they ignore your unsubscribe request. I hope you're not notifying the world that your preferred supplier of [X] is a spammer. I like to stay on good terms with my preferred suppliers.

illegal spam ⊆ spam

If I didn’t ask for it, it’s spam, regardless of whatever holes the US has punched in its definition to keep business owners happy.

Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam

#115

Post by adamfeldman »

nibbleshifter wrote: post #113
f4c39012 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slightly easier* than running a domain, i've had luck with myemail+CompanyX@gmail.com when signing up to CompanyX. Gmail handles the '+' transparently (in the same way as it ignores '.') and delivers the email to myemail@gmail.com. It is fun to receive a survey about "an anonymous company you have used in the past"... sent to myemail+uber@gmail.com. *yet less reliable, '+' in email addresses isn't always accepted, an…

Tbh with GSuite + a 5$ domain I get catch alls for minimal effort. I used to use + addressing schemes, but abandoned it for the reasons you mentioned (websites breaking horribly).

Exactly. Catch-all setup on Google Workspace/G Suite/too-many-renames is usually obtuse but it’s a one-time tutorial effort.

Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam

#117

Post by noizz »

I have similar experiences in general, however I've been unlucky enough to be a victim of a couple of leaks like Adobe, Invision and Gfycat. Some marketplace retailers also leaked my email and couple of smaller stores too. Totally worth to know this. That said - my general info@ email that's semi publicly (simple js obfuscation) available on the website is orders of magnitude more spammed than those leaked ones.

Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam

#118

Post by ryantgtg »

f4c39012 wrote: post #96
adamfeldman wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly my use-case and experience after many years of custom catch-all'ing. I've noticed a couple breaches, and also a few unexpected transfers of my email address between semi-related parties. Just once it appeared an address was sold via a marketing list, after filling out a lead-form for a free online conference hosted by multiple companies that you've seen on HN. Surprisingly, unsubscribing tends to stop…

Slightly easier* than running a domain, i've had luck with myemail+CompanyX@gmail.com when signing up to CompanyX. Gmail handles the '+' transparently (in the same way as it ignores '.') and delivers the email to myemail@gmail.com. It is fun to receive a survey about "an anonymous company you have used in the past"... sent to myemail+uber@gmail.com. *yet less reliable, '+' in email addresses isn't always accepted, an…

Wouldn’t it trivial for them to strip out all values from + to @ prior to selling your address?

Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam

#120

Post by legitster »

I work as an administrator to an email marketing server. I'd like to think I can speak on some authority on this subject.

> Is the fear of "people selling your email to spammers" a modern myth

100% absolutely. Your email address itself is not valuable or interesting in any way.

I can't imagine there being an internet black market for random email addresses, but if I had to guess what they would be worth, it would be fractions of a fraction of a cent per email. Meanwhile, Mailchimp charges ~$0.02 per month for every email contact you hold onto. It makes absolutely no financial sense for your average retailer or newsletter to be selling your email addresses.

However, your contact information might get sold if it is attached to high value sales activities. Like if you signed up for a quote on a $50k HVAC system or indicate you are a big donor to certain political causes. Your email address/phone number are valuable in that they are now attached to some pretty valuable purchasing intent. This is where less than scrupulous sites will live to harvest your data.

This is still a bit of an outlier activity. If I sell expensive HVAC systems, the only people interested in this data would be direct competitors. If the information is actually valuable, it will be less likely to be widely disseminated.

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