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Comment by isoprophlex | Hacker News Reader

I use shopname@firstname.lastname.email, with my own lastname.email domain. Fastmail makes configuring your dns records for this super simple.

It's always fun interacting with customer service reps when they for example confirm my email address... "errrrrr yeah so we email you at ourname@...?"

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I own fakefakefake.email and savor the opportunity to give people dumb catchalls when they insist on needing an email address from me.

I've done that for nearly twenty years now. Importantly, it allows one to trace how your email gets distributed and stolen.

Did you find anything interesting? I started doing this recently and did not find anyone misusing my email so far and am now wondering if it's worth the extra effort.

For alias addresses they are filtering that because the data thiefs and middlemen know a small portion of people do this. They cut off the plus or dot part when your domain has a well known MX/MTA connected to it.

That still leaves custom mailservers and non-alias (as in aliases via plus or dot, not actual mailserver aliases) which does give an indication as to who is sharing your data.

A decade ago I found the unique email address I used at Hertz.com leaked for spam.

Of course when I complained they said it must have been something I did...

Oh yes, and also in physical stores when e.g. giving a contact e-mail for warranty updates.

- "Oh! You work with us? At which store?"

Why do you use shopname@? Once you know the pattern everyone can guess it.

Not OP, but I'm guessing because it's easier to remember than completely random email address (password manager might solve this?) and more unique than using the same email everywhere.

Yeah, thats exactly it, it allows filtering incoming messages into folders based on what I tell a shop and it makes it easier to remember what alias i used where

You can combine the shopname with a salt and store it in your password manager.

Only a tiny fraction of people is in a position to do this. If it were really an issue, using the pattern `shopname_n`, where nn is different for every address, should do the trick. It's similar to encrypting serial numbers so they don't [German Tank Problem](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_tank_problem) them.

Wow I have the exact same setup – it works perfectly! I assume you also, like me, have a backup domain like lastname-email.com for all the broken email validators out there?

Yeah just the base firstnamelastname@fastmail.com i got when first registering with fastmail.

I use this one for two or three vital services, like banking and receiving government messages.

Meaning i have some backup should i forget to renew the .email domain...

I like this! I haven't used my own mail-server for much, however this is a great way to avoid a single "e-mail" that everyone can support :)

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