PDA

View Full Version : Email trick



Norm In Norman
10/13/2006, 09:59 AM
So, I guess a fairly standard thing you can do that I've never known about is put a plus after your userid but before the @ sign and your email server will ignore everything between the + and the @. So that way if you get spam you can see if your information got shared by something you signed up for (unless spammers remove this, which they probably do.

So for instance, if OU4LIFE signed up at "imabuttnugget.com" using the email address "[email protected]" and he got a spam email in his [email protected] account that was addressed to "[email protected]", he would know that "imabuttnugget.com" gave his address to spammers.

You can try it by sending a test email to yourself. Just send an email to your own account and put the + in there like above. I don't know if spaces work or not. I know it works with gmail and my work account. i think there are other symbols you can use for other things too, but I don't know what they are.

sooner_born_1960
10/13/2006, 10:02 AM
OU4LIFE really did that?

yermom
10/13/2006, 10:04 AM
interesting... i really should have known this :O

OUDoc
10/13/2006, 10:18 AM
cool.

OU4LIFE
10/13/2006, 10:27 AM
I did do that, except it was [email protected].

NormanPride
10/13/2006, 10:32 AM
I never get spam emailed to me. As in the email address it's supposedly pointed to is "[email protected]" or whatever. And that's not my email address.

OUDoc
10/13/2006, 10:42 AM
I never get spam emailed to me. As in the email address it's supposedly pointed to is "[email protected]" or whatever. And that's not my email address.
:mad:
I was wondering who signed me up for all those male enhancement devices. I thought it was my wife.

Norm In Norman
10/13/2006, 10:43 AM
I never get spam emailed to me. As in the email address it's supposedly pointed to is "[email protected]" or whatever. And that's not my email address.
Well, sometimes it's unavoidable.

Norm In Norman
10/13/2006, 10:46 AM
interesting... i really should have known this :O
Yah, our uber linux guy (as in he actually changes the kernal with his own self written code to suit his own needs) was talking about this stuff yesterday. he says basically nobody knows about it but it's a pretty standard mail server thing, which means I doubt it works on exchange.

mdklatt
10/13/2006, 10:46 AM
I never get spam emailed to me. As in the email address it's supposedly pointed to is "[email protected]" or whatever. And that's not my email address.

So it didn't get mailed to you but it ends up in your inbox anyway....

jkm, the stolen pifwafwi
10/13/2006, 12:38 PM
he says basically nobody knows about it but it's a pretty standard mail server thing, which means I doubt it works on exchange.

just tried it. no dice on exchange 2005 or 2007

OU4LIFE
10/13/2006, 01:15 PM
just tried it. no dice on exchange 2005 or 2007


can we keep this about my hole-in-one please?

thanks.

Vaevictis
10/13/2006, 02:20 PM
I just looked through RFCs 821 and 2821, and it doesn't seem to be standard behavior to do that. So make use of this at your own risk.

My guess is that it's a leftover from the UUCP days, and that sendmail is probably the only MTA that supports this.

EDIT: Yeah, sendmail definately supports it. I'll get back to you on qmail and postfix.

EDIT 2: Not supported by qmail.

Norm In Norman
10/13/2006, 02:22 PM
just tried it. no dice on exchange 2005 or 2007
Yeah, that figures. It's just like on the windows FTP server you have to send a site command to get it to output directory listings in "standard" mode. I think the command is actually "standard" too.

Stoop Dawg
10/13/2006, 02:26 PM
Why can't MS just implement the non-standard stuff we want and not implement the non-standard stuff we don't want? Idiots! :mad:

jkm, the stolen pifwafwi
10/13/2006, 03:15 PM
Why can't MS just implement the non-standard stuff we want and not implement the non-standard stuff we don't want? Idiots! :mad:

i blame talking rain

jkm, the stolen pifwafwi
10/13/2006, 03:17 PM
this is my life

http://www.bugbash.net/strips/bug-bash20061009.gif

www.bugbash.net

Vaevictis
10/13/2006, 03:26 PM
Okay, just talked to a buddy of mine who knows a lot more about MTAs than I do.

It's definately not in the RFC, which means it ain't standard. It is, however, a convention a lot of unix-y MTAs support. The main purpose of the thing is to allow multiple email addresses per user on a system, especially with the intent that a user would be able to set up email lists by differentiating with the string following the separator character. It seems to have originally occured in qmail.

Various MTAs support different separator characters. qmail uses '-', sendmail uses '+' and postfix's is configurable, defaulting to '+'.

jkm, the stolen pifwafwi
10/13/2006, 03:29 PM
http://www.bugbash.net/strips/bug-bash20060206.gif

Norm In Norman
10/13/2006, 03:47 PM
Okay, just talked to a buddy of mine who knows a lot more about MTAs than I do.

It's definately not in the RFC, which means it ain't standard. It is, however, a convention a lot of unix-y MTAs support. The main purpose of the thing is to allow multiple email addresses per user on a system, especially with the intent that a user would be able to set up email lists by differentiating with the string following the separator character. It seems to have originally occured in qmail.

Various MTAs support different separator characters. qmail uses '-', sendmail uses '+' and postfix's is configurable, defaulting to '+'.
That's why I said it is fairly standard. MS doesn't care what all those stupid unix guys do because ms guys are way smarter than unix nerds. it's better to come up with your own thing and pass it on as a standard. You know, like what they did with html and css.

Actually, i was surprised that it worked on gmail. I figured it wouldn't. I wonder if it works in yahoo? i doubt it works with msn.

Vaevictis
10/13/2006, 03:57 PM
That's why I said it is fairly standard.

*snicker* That's me bringing my bias to the table. IMO, when talking about protocols, it's either standard, or it's not. And when it comes to internet protocols, if it ain't in the RFC, it ain't standard. ;)

Stoop Dawg
10/13/2006, 04:52 PM
this is my life

http://www.bugbash.net/strips/bug-bash20061009.gif

www.bugbash.net

Frame 3 should be as follows:

Programmer: Well, what *should* it do then?
Analyst: *** blank stare ***

RacerX
10/16/2006, 06:20 AM
I never get spam emailed to me. As in the email address it's supposedly pointed to is "[email protected]" or whatever. And that's not my email address.

BCC

opksooner
10/16/2006, 10:43 AM
It works.

Cam
10/16/2006, 08:30 PM
Didn't work on Hotmail or work e-mail.