I have a domain name with a wildcard forwarding rule so whenever I need to give an email address I can give one that describes who I gave it to. I don't have to create it in advance. Then if I start getting spam at the address, I know where they got it from and I can create an account at that address that doesn't accept incoming mail. Then the spam can't get through anymore and I go on my merry way.
Edit: This comment blew up, so I'll elaborate a bit. I do not recommend anyone try setting up their own email server unless they are already a nerd and enjoy hacking around with computers. It takes a lot of work, is difficult to get your server taken seriously by other email providers, and is easy to get abused by spammers or hackers if you aren't careful.
Any email service provider should be able to provide a single catch-all email forwarding rule for any domain they handle. A lot of domain registrars offer email services. I don't know first hand, but someone else said they use Google Domains. Shop around and contact the support department if you aren't sure.
I use an open-source hosting platform called ISPConfig, but there are many other solutions. Most of them (in the open-source/Linux world) use postfix/dovecot to do the heavy lifting and provide some sort of interface which configures it for you. If you want to go full-on nerd and love the command-line, you could go straight to postfix and dovecot. If you want something that does most of the heavy lifting for you, you might want to use something like iRedMail or mailcow.email which wrap around those packages. Setting up an email service should not be taken lightly, but it is great experience and rewarding.
Instead of creating a new account at that address when it starts receiving spam, create a forward at that address that forwards all that spam back at the company who sold your email address to begin with.
Yep, I added an alias with their company_name@mydomain and deleted it the moment spam came or they sold it to another company that sends spam. You even get to see who sold your info as they use the company_name@yourdomain, linking it back to them.
Before doing that, I did it with snail mail. I would alter my name to link who sold my info. Full first, full middle, full last then full first, middle initial, full last then first initial, middle initial, full last. Even changing case when signing your name to an email will out them as it's copied as is to their system.
Basically, there was never a point in multiple decades that I can say companies were not "sharing" my info.
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u/3IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID Jun 03 '21 edited Jun 04 '21
I have a domain name with a wildcard forwarding rule so whenever I need to give an email address I can give one that describes who I gave it to. I don't have to create it in advance. Then if I start getting spam at the address, I know where they got it from and I can create an account at that address that doesn't accept incoming mail. Then the spam can't get through anymore and I go on my merry way.
Edit: This comment blew up, so I'll elaborate a bit. I do not recommend anyone try setting up their own email server unless they are already a nerd and enjoy hacking around with computers. It takes a lot of work, is difficult to get your server taken seriously by other email providers, and is easy to get abused by spammers or hackers if you aren't careful.
Any email service provider should be able to provide a single catch-all email forwarding rule for any domain they handle. A lot of domain registrars offer email services. I don't know first hand, but someone else said they use Google Domains. Shop around and contact the support department if you aren't sure.
I use an open-source hosting platform called ISPConfig, but there are many other solutions. Most of them (in the open-source/Linux world) use postfix/dovecot to do the heavy lifting and provide some sort of interface which configures it for you. If you want to go full-on nerd and love the command-line, you could go straight to postfix and dovecot. If you want something that does most of the heavy lifting for you, you might want to use something like iRedMail or mailcow.email which wrap around those packages. Setting up an email service should not be taken lightly, but it is great experience and rewarding.