Interesting gmail behavior
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A friend just told me about a cool gmail tip. When you give someone your gmail address, you can add a '+' followed by a unique text string to your username - for example, joe.smith+textstring@gmail.com. Then when you get spam, you can check the text string to see who you gave that address to. Is anyone using this?
Best wishes, Hans
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Totally cool! /ravi
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A friend just told me about a cool gmail tip. When you give someone your gmail address, you can add a '+' followed by a unique text string to your username - for example, joe.smith+textstring@gmail.com. Then when you get spam, you can check the text string to see who you gave that address to. Is anyone using this?
Best wishes, Hans
[CodeProject Forum Guidelines] [How To Ask A Question] [My Articles]
Cool! Also works in the real world when you have to give out your mailing address to someone or something a bit dodgy, add something distinct to your name or the address that won't interrupt the delivery and keep note of it and you will be able to track any junk mail you get as a result straight back to the source. I've found some very odd connections between vastly different organizations this way.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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A friend just told me about a cool gmail tip. When you give someone your gmail address, you can add a '+' followed by a unique text string to your username - for example, joe.smith+textstring@gmail.com. Then when you get spam, you can check the text string to see who you gave that address to. Is anyone using this?
Best wishes, Hans
[CodeProject Forum Guidelines] [How To Ask A Question] [My Articles]
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How long till people who sell email addresses to spammers parse gmail addresses with a simple regex and get rid of the '+' and everything between it and the '@'?
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How long till people who sell email addresses to spammers parse gmail addresses with a simple regex and get rid of the '+' and everything between it and the '@'?
I was wondering the same thing...
"Walking on water and developing software from a specification are easy if both are frozen."
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A friend just told me about a cool gmail tip. When you give someone your gmail address, you can add a '+' followed by a unique text string to your username - for example, joe.smith+textstring@gmail.com. Then when you get spam, you can check the text string to see who you gave that address to. Is anyone using this?
Best wishes, Hans
[CodeProject Forum Guidelines] [How To Ask A Question] [My Articles]
Very dodgy. According to RFC822, the '+textstring' is simply part of the address (and now it's a different address).
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Very dodgy. According to RFC822, the '+textstring' is simply part of the address (and now it's a different address).
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I suspect they make an alias. I also suspect they dont allow '+' in the username.
xacc.ide - now with TabsToSpaces support
IronScheme - 1.0 alpha 4a out now (29 May 2008)But surely the whole point is that GMail won't know what the text string is? The idea is that you add this random string to things you sign up for, and then you can spot to whom that email address has been given without your permission. Sounds like the only way it could work is for GMail to ignore any part of the
local-partof the address after the+, and that contradicts the RFC.joe.bloggs@gmail.comandjoe.bloggs+text@gmail.comare different addresses, end of story.modified on Saturday, June 28, 2008 6:41 AM
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But surely the whole point is that GMail won't know what the text string is? The idea is that you add this random string to things you sign up for, and then you can spot to whom that email address has been given without your permission. Sounds like the only way it could work is for GMail to ignore any part of the
local-partof the address after the+, and that contradicts the RFC.joe.bloggs@gmail.comandjoe.bloggs+text@gmail.comare different addresses, end of story.modified on Saturday, June 28, 2008 6:41 AM
Graham Bradshaw wrote:
joe.bloggs@gmail.com and joe.bloggs+text@gmail.com are different addresses
I agree. My guess is when you create an account they setup 2 email aliases for you (no spec violation), example: Somewhere in the big filters file of gmail (assumes some regex matching system):
joe.bloggs@gmail.com -> {BFDBF03E-7317-475a-B4C2-ABB1DCE4BDD4}
joe.bloggs\+[^@]+@gmail.com -> {BFDBF03E-7317-475a-B4C2-ABB1DCE4BDD4}Now nowhere any RFC spec is violated.
xacc.ide - now with TabsToSpaces support
IronScheme - 1.0 alpha 4a out now (29 May 2008) -
Graham Bradshaw wrote:
joe.bloggs@gmail.com and joe.bloggs+text@gmail.com are different addresses
I agree. My guess is when you create an account they setup 2 email aliases for you (no spec violation), example: Somewhere in the big filters file of gmail (assumes some regex matching system):
joe.bloggs@gmail.com -> {BFDBF03E-7317-475a-B4C2-ABB1DCE4BDD4}
joe.bloggs\+[^@]+@gmail.com -> {BFDBF03E-7317-475a-B4C2-ABB1DCE4BDD4}Now nowhere any RFC spec is violated.
xacc.ide - now with TabsToSpaces support
IronScheme - 1.0 alpha 4a out now (29 May 2008)Yes, that is how my ISP does it. They offer throw-away email addresses.
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