If you have a Gmail account you really have unlimited email addresses.
If you use Gmail, did you know that you actually have unlimited email addresses you can use? The secret is the + symbol.
Let’s say your email address is [email protected]. By adding a plus symbol after ‘me’ you can create unlimited variations of your email address and all will be delivered to your inbox. For example:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
These will all be delivered to the [email protected] account.
Here are reasons you might want to use email variations using the plus symbol.
1. Filter your Gmail.
Get a lot of newsletters? Want to send certain emails directly to the archive? Use unique email addresses in combination with filters to sort your email.
2. Track Whois harvesting.
Use your Gmail account +whois for your Whois records to see who is contacting you by harvesting the Whois database.
3. See who is selling your address.
Use a unique email address for each account/login you create online to see if the business is selling your email address.
4. Reduce phishing attempts.
Use a unique identifier for each account you create to make sure you aren’t getting phished. For example, your bank email could be [email protected]. If you get a message from Wells Fargo that uses just [email protected] instead of [email protected], then someone has harvested your email address and might be trying to trick you.
5. Reduce the chances of hacks impacting your accounts.
When hackers steal credentials from a service they then sell this information to people who run scripts to use the username/email and password combos to break into more accounts at other providers. If you use a unique email address for each service then they will be less likely to get into your other accounts.
The only problem I’ve run into using + symbols is that some web forms won’t accept the symbol and won’t accept it as a valid email address.
David Thornton says
I knew. 🙂 it’s also possible to add one or more dots (“.”) anywhere within the @gmail.com email address one has and all will redirect to the same inbox.
Example: [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] would all redirect to the same Gmail inbox.
Andrew Allemann says
I don’t see as much of a use case for dots. There are fewer combos and they aren’t as intuitive (easy to remember) as +somethingdescriptive
shaitan says
Another problem is that the dots approach doesn’t work with gsuite accounts
David Thornton says
For those using their own domain name for email, perhaps a better approach is to setup a third level/sub domain name with catch all email configured. Example: your domain name is domainnamewire.com so setup reply.domainnamewire.com with catch all email configured. You’ll now be able to immediately use [anything]@reply.domainnamewire.com as an email address anywhere you wish. All incoming mail can be routed as you prefer or just to one inbox. Substitute “reply” for any other sub domain name you may prefer. This method has the benefit of not tainting the email addresses at the second level domain name.
Oren says
plus method is more useful for filtering, dot method will get past almost all filters
John Kenney says
Very handy tip. I did not know that. Thank you.
AbdulBasit.com says
I wasn’t aware of it. Thanks for the tip.
Mark Thorpe says
Interesting
Green Jobs says
Great tip Andrew.
Domainer says
Not foolproof, some bulk enail scripts have option to remove the + symbol and anything after it and change it to regular address.
PageHowe.com says
ive been adding dots in between letters, makes a different email address goes to same place.
Domainer says
If my email is dnw at gmail and someone else has dnw1 at gmail, what happens if they use a plus or a dot?
Is this a way for someone to hijack or copy my gmail acct ?
Andrew Allemann says
No it can’t hijack. Everything is sent to the main email address. Dnw1+ something is a different email
Domainer says
I have a couple gmail accts.
One of them, I have the primary domain (one word). Someone else has the same domain but it has a number – ie word25 at gmail. Occasionally, I get his email. I check the header and it is correct for his email. (I checked, no periods in the email address)
That is why I raised the question.
I start wondering, if someone else is getting my emails for the ‘word at gmail’.
Anonymous says
Been doing this for a long time. Last year, I caught a small Indian registrar Netlynx selling my email thanks to this feature. Got tons of spam from it.
Ibrahim Khan says
I owns the dot version of my name in id and i gets all mails of without dot version email which is irrelevant to me. Not sure if my emails are getting into his mail account. Complained to gmail but no response.
David Thornton says
You’re supposed to receive them. Example: if you use “ibrahim.khan@gmail[.com]”, ibrahimkhan@gmail[.com] is an alias of that and will redirect to your Gmail inbox. You can place dots anywhere within your email address, before the @gmail.com, (but not two ajacent, so no “i..brahim”) to use other aliases.
David Thornton says
Further clarification: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en
Appreciative Reader says
Would be useful if you explained … as this is well known … why would spammers not just strip off everything after and including the ‘+’ – rendering your attempt at spam control ineffective.
Andrew Allemann says
I’ve found that spammers aren’t that sophisticated