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Thread ID: 105795 2009-12-14 19:16:00 Find out where spam comes from jonathan (15437) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
839575 2009-12-14 19:16:00 Hi there.
I read somewhere recently that you add something to your email when giving it to a site, and then when you get spam it will show if that website sold your email.
ie. say my email is johnsmith@gmail.com I am signing up to pressf1, where it says 'email' I put johnsmith+pressf1@gmail.com and when I get spam and it says 'to: johnsmith+pressf1@gmail.com ' then I know pressf1 sold my email to a spammer, or something. Anyone know?
:spam
jonathan (15437)
839576 2009-12-14 19:20:00 I guess you could do email@domain.com?subject=SomeSite but anywhere that filters addresses with a regex will drop the additional part. inphinity (7274)
839577 2009-12-14 19:22:00 test+spam@gmail.com will go to the same address as test+whatever@gmail.com and test@gmail.com. pcuser42 (130)
839578 2009-12-14 19:27:00 ok, 'cause I tried it with a xtra email account and it said it was not a valid email address. does it only apply to gmail? jonathan (15437)
839579 2009-12-14 19:31:00 It only applies if your mail provider supports sub-addressing of that type - GMail, Yahoo etc do as far as I'm aware, but theres quite a few who don't also. inphinity (7274)
839580 2009-12-14 19:34:00 ok, thanks jonathan (15437)
839581 2009-12-14 19:40:00 I just found the website where I saw this. check it out: jamus.co.nz jonathan (15437)
839582 2009-12-14 19:45:00 There's also the likes of mailinator, plus when you post your address in cleartext on forums, some places share your email address in your "profile", things like that ... Chilling_Silence (9)
839583 2009-12-14 20:25:00 It only applies if your mail provider supports sub-addressing of that type - GMail, Yahoo etc do as far as I'm aware, but theres quite a few who don't also.

Anyone who runs a normal MTA with a pretty standard setup support it (even if they arent aware of it). For example sendmail (en.wikipedia.org) works this way unless you specifically tell it not too.
razzarphenix (2626)
839584 2009-12-14 20:38:00 There's also the likes of mailinator, plus when you post your address in cleartext on forums, some places share your email address in your "profile", things like that ...

I use trashmail.net and the FireFox Trashmail addon (addons.mozilla.org) to forward emails from a temporary trashmail address, to my real address. Good for dodgy web-forms.
razzarphenix (2626)
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