• takeheart@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Here’s a neat trick that works with some providers: you can include a + sign and an extra string of characters and it will still be delivered to the same address. Example:

    user083+some-online-shop@provider.net will receive the mail for user083@provider.net. So you can register with a different email address everywhere yet it all goes to the same account. If your account gets leaked or breached you’ll know where it happened thanks to the extra information behind the +.

    • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Yeah I know about that trick. I’ve run into problems using that in the past because the + notation isn’t universally supported, and also some companies sell their customer lists to other companies. I forget the specific details because it happened years ago now, but I found one of my + addresses signed up to a mailing list I didn’t want to be on. The form used to unsubscribe from that list considered the + an invalid character, so I couldn’t unsubscribe. As I recall it took a week or so of emails to various contacts at that company to get me unsubscribed.

      Besides, it wouldn’t help at all in this particular case. Look at the screenshot. It’s redacting everything in the email address before the @, so I still wouldn’t know which one they are referring to.