I do the same thing for the last several years and the only email that was spammed is the mailbox used for Digital Ocean. Seems like they had some leak (or may be sold that data, not sure), but I received spam emails with some sketchy links only on that email.
Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam
341–350 of 359 posts
Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam
#342Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just adding an @ to the string match would make it a bit more robust. (Would still be vulnerable to jim@their.domain.my.domain , so add a $ on the end if it’s a regexp.) But even with the most rudimentary web-dev languages you can replace the inner string match with a lowercase transform, split on @ and perform an exact string compare. Insanely simple stuff. Probably still a one-liner in any sane/productive framework…
Frameworks usually have some sort of email parser. Email parsing is non trivial. But I agree matching .*?@domain.com$ would probably work fine.
Definitely use a real email address parser if it’s available, easy and/or you’re dealing with unknown email addresses. But absent any strange circumstances there’s also nothing wrong with basic string manipulation if it’s done properly (e.g. split on @ and test for an exact string match, case insensitive). As personal preference, I’d choose that over regexp.
Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam
#343Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've seen sites that disallow auto-generated addresses, super lame and makes me not want to use them, not sure how common that is today.
I've seen sites that disallow auto-generated addresses, super lame and makes me not want to use them, not sure how common that is today. Expect this to change, if Apple's anonymous e-mail forwarding becomes popular. Just like when IT departments (including the one at my company) insisted that everyone use Blackberries because iPhones weren't suitable for a corporate environment. Once enough C-levels start using any f…
> Expect this to change, if Apple's anonymous e-mail forwarding becomes popular.
They'll continue to block the non-apple ones regardless.
Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam
#344Earlier quoted context omitted.
> (dont use them) Are you able to share what made you stop using them? I've been contemplating trying them out :-)
Here is a fullish comment thread involving me and a migadu employee on the matter. Note he still claims some kind of email was sent at the end (it wasn't). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24974369 There are a few other threads on HN about them as well. Essentially they are a bargain basement supplier and expect them to treat you as accordingly. If you're happy with that then its fine!
FWIW I use Migadu and think they're great.
But I have few needs. I set mailboxes up, I IMAP to them, that works. They're great value. Job done.
Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam
#345Fastmail user here. I can testify to this strategy. I consistently keep my inbox zero and almost zero spam. Either way, the Fastmail spam filter is excellent. This is from a non-technical user who doesn't use sieve rules (which are even better and more granular)!
Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam
#346Is 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…
I've heard that fraud sentiment several times from friends of mine who do exactly that with the company name in the email address. They've since moved on to a randomly generated string of alphanumeric characters, this is put into a spreadsheet, and they write down when and where they used it.
I'd like to start doing this, but wondering what I would do if I figured out someone had passed the address on or been compromised.
Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam
#347Earlier quoted context omitted.
> few vendors got upset that I had their name in the address No one got upset, but a record label was confused and asked me about it, and another company had their legal department ask me under what license I use their TM ;) In both cases a simple explanation was the end of it.
> another company had their legal department ask me under what license I use their TM Please name!, or give details of size. Not for shame — for curiosity!
TÜV Nord [0], 12k employees, 1.37 million € revenue
As I said, one quick explanation of single-use emails cleared everything up.
Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam
#348This has been exactly my experience. I have use custom email addresses online for at least 13 year and I have (almost) never gotten spam to these addresses. I have no spam filter on my account, so if I received spam email I would know.
There have been a few random incidents. I did get one spam message to my kickstarter email address, presumably because some project I funded did not protect my address. I also once got spam from a reservation I made for brunch at a local jazz club.
Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam
#349Re: Tell HN: After 10 years of experiments, custom username emails receive no spam
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not from within Gmail's web interface. I personally use Thunderbird and AWS SES to send mail, but many people who grew up on web interfaces are intimidated by Thunderbird.
Does thurnderbird let you change the from on an ad-hoc basis, or do you have to manually add different identities?
Current Thunderbird does enable the From address to be edited in the Compose window, and can fill in that field from the TO address of the message being replied to. Previous Thunderbird versions needed an Addon called Virtual Identities to do this.