Combating spam with GMAIL
Spam
Why is this necessary? Why cant we work the same way as I mentioned earlier? Here is why: Spammers are also smart. Suppose you create an account abc@gmail.com and share abc+ebay@gmail.com. Now, spammers can search there database searching for gmail addresses with a ‘+’ in them and remove the ‘+’ and the part following it. Now what happens? You start getting spam at your real email ID with no way to filter it. If we change our tactics slightly, with what I suggest above, in such a scenario spammers will send email to pqr@gmail.com, which isnt getting forwarded. Do try and let me know pitfalls. I know its a bit complex but should be worth it – have questions, post comments.
―――――――――――X――――――――――
I have been a fan of GMAIL ever since it was launched – the best feature is of course the quick search facility, and use it regularly. I learnt an interesting way to combat spam with GMAIL recently.
Suppose, the email ID you have is abcd@gmail.com. You can add a ‘+’ sign after abcd, and add whatever you want after that. For example, abcd+friends@gmail.com is also a valid email ID and the email sent to this address will reach you. When you are signing up with a service, let us say eBay, or a webforum and you fear the service provider will share/leak your ID, you can create a brand new email ID for them, for example abcd+ebay@gmail.com. This way, you can setup special filters to automatically tag the emails, or if it starts getting too much spam you can setup filters to automatically trash all emails to this ID that do not come from ebay.com.
[...] you want you can go a step ahead and hide your real ID, as shown here – when submitting your email ID to unscrupulous websites and blogs/boards [...]