I finally had a great idea in my war against spam. Even if you have a personal and a not-so-personal disposable account, it is an imperfect arrangement. The idea is that at some point your not-so-personal account will reach an intolerable limit of spam and you can abandon it and move on to some other then-in-vogue address. But between inception and abandonment, what about the annoyance of the steadily building spam? And for that matter, wouldn't it be nice to know WHO didn't protect your email address and WHO you can blame for this dastardly misfeasance? And wouldn't it be nice to not have to keep track of multiple accounts?
Having your own domain name (i.e. JaneDoe.com) is the first step. Next, find a web host or an email service (Google and Yahoo, for example) that will let you use your personal domain with their email service. Create whatever email address you like (say, jane@janedoe.com) and only provide it to your most trustworthy correspondents.
Now for the genius part! Establish a sub-domain that will be easy to remember (i.e. Jane.JaneDoe.com), but don't configure any email addresses for it. Instead, set your options so that all messages sent to this sub-domain go to your private email address. So any email sent to blahblah@jane.janedoe.com will be delivered to jane@janedoe.com. Don't dismiss me just yet. This is the good part! Whenever you buy or sign up for something online, create a new email address according to the merchant. So if you buy something from amazon.com, enter your email address as amazon@jane.janedoe.com. It does not matter that this is not your email address as all messages sent to the sub-domain are delivered to your private email address. Now if you ever start getting spam sent to amazon@jane.janedoe.com, then you know that Amazon is responsible for not protecting your information. As for stopping it, now you can create a block/filter that deletes any future message sent to amazon@jane.janedoe.com and you will NEVER get another spam from anyone who obtains that address. But this caveat: I use Amazon as a convenient example. I have shopped with Amazon for years and have never had a single problem. It is a great company in every respect, so in their case, you could trust them with your private address.
As a final note....if any of your trusted correspondents do not use anti-virus software, a nasty virus could harvest the email addresses from every email sent to or from that person. So this might not work until the next American centennial, but it should last you a decade.
Having your own domain name (i.e. JaneDoe.com) is the first step. Next, find a web host or an email service (Google and Yahoo, for example) that will let you use your personal domain with their email service. Create whatever email address you like (say, jane@janedoe.com) and only provide it to your most trustworthy correspondents.
Now for the genius part! Establish a sub-domain that will be easy to remember (i.e. Jane.JaneDoe.com), but don't configure any email addresses for it. Instead, set your options so that all messages sent to this sub-domain go to your private email address. So any email sent to blahblah@jane.janedoe.com will be delivered to jane@janedoe.com. Don't dismiss me just yet. This is the good part! Whenever you buy or sign up for something online, create a new email address according to the merchant. So if you buy something from amazon.com, enter your email address as amazon@jane.janedoe.com. It does not matter that this is not your email address as all messages sent to the sub-domain are delivered to your private email address. Now if you ever start getting spam sent to amazon@jane.janedoe.com, then you know that Amazon is responsible for not protecting your information. As for stopping it, now you can create a block/filter that deletes any future message sent to amazon@jane.janedoe.com and you will NEVER get another spam from anyone who obtains that address. But this caveat: I use Amazon as a convenient example. I have shopped with Amazon for years and have never had a single problem. It is a great company in every respect, so in their case, you could trust them with your private address.
As a final note....if any of your trusted correspondents do not use anti-virus software, a nasty virus could harvest the email addresses from every email sent to or from that person. So this might not work until the next American centennial, but it should last you a decade.
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