[datahound]

Here is a tip, many of you may have thought of before but I will add anyway..

When signing up at a website giving my email address I always give the name of the website as part of the address, eg if I am giving my email to Argos I give the address argos@mydomain.com. Or norwichunion@mydomain.com, privelige@mydomain.com, tesco@mydomain.com.

As I own my domain I get all the mail on the catchall and if I receive spam I can usually see who the source is by looking in the headers to see who it is addressed to. I can then exclude that mail by setting a rule against that recipient address.

I once started receiving bad porn emails addressed to jp3@mydomain.com. This was an address I had given only when signing up at the Jurassic Park III website part of Universal Studios. I emailed them to let them know but they couldn't be asked to reply. (probably worried I would sue). But I knew it was them that had lost my details to porn spam monkeys. And I could easily exclude mail to that address.

[sub]

The problem isn't always with the recipient of your email address, it's the domain.
Spammers have cracked on to this and rather than just collecting and spamming a single email address they now take the domain and spam it with random recipients. i.e nobby@yourdomain.com, bobby@yourdomain.com etc etc so that anyone with email set to catchall - gets them all!

[datahound]

Fair point, although that randomised address spamming I thought was more an effect of worms in other peoples address books.

Good point though easy to do, quick macro in Excel.

Generally though it has served me well to date.

[sub]

I think the sad truth is that these freaks will always find ways of sending pointless, irrelevant and unwanted emails.

[Mr Fred]

like my clients,

[datahound]

Customers, always there to spoil a nice day.

[aspiramedia]

http://www.wbwip.com/wbw/emailencoder.html

A novel way around it. Converts email addresses to ascii. Works too.

[Rakan]

That's an interesting idea...

[Rakan]

Originally Posted by aspiramedia

http://www.wbwip.com/wbw/emailencoder.html

A novel way around it. Converts email addresses to ascii. Works too.

How does this work?

[aspiramedia]

It just uses ASCII characters for your email address so spambots don't pick it up. It looks normal to the user too as the browser renders the ASCII.

[Rakan]

Nice. Gonna try that. Thanks.

[gray]

Righteous Spammers!!!

[Andy]

http://www.mailinator.com

I use this

[Stickman]

Me too.

[roto]

spamex.com
$9.95 per year
500 disposable e-mail addresses (catch 'em in their tracks)
no worries about a catch-all technique

Originally Posted by Spamex Website

What is a Disposable Email Address Service and why do I need it?
Every time you disclose your Real Email Address, you lose all control over how it is used. Once your Real Email Address is known, there is no way to MAKE someone stop sending you email nor is there a way to prevent them from disclosing your Real Email Address to others.
Disclosure is one of the main causes of unsolicited email. A Disposable Email Address Service protects your Real Email Address from disclosure.
With a Disposable Email Address Service you can create Disposable Email Addresses that forward to your Real Email Address. These addresses should be used instead of your Real Email Address whenever you are asked to disclose your email address. By using Disposable Email Addresses you protect your Real Email Address from disclosure and retain control over who is able to send you email.

Yes, could be used to send SPAM, too...but they don't allow mass mailings.