This is exactly how I have been running my mailbox, and it works really well. However recently I have changed from IMAP or POP based email to having a Hosted Exchange solution.

It seems that the advice above used to be industry standard advice when email was something that could be trusted. However now as most email is unwanted spam, the industry are stopping catch-all addresses, especially on Hosted Exchange services.

I’m getting to the point where I am having to redesign my mailbox, so that I have an “untrusted” box, and then create aliases for new trusted boxes. So that I can then dump any alias which starts spamming me.

It’s a bit of a pain though, as the aliases have to be created in advance before the address will work! Especially as I use to just sign up on a site and create a random email address!

Best Regards

It’s also possible that any intermediate mail server (a mail service like a forwarder) might strip out any headers, although they still have to keep the ultimate recipient in mind since they are forwarding the mail.

Figuring out who is selling my email address is a huge reason why I run my own mail server. It allows me to ensure that the original address email was sent to will be in the headers.

If this is dependent on the sender’s mail server, then that means it is indeed possible for spammers to flood your mailbox with all kinds of crap and that you might have absolutely no idea which of your 100s of email aliases is colleting all the garbage?!? Just speculating, but I continue to be disturbed by this issue. ~Benjamin

I had used only a BCC address with an alias that redirects to the comcast mailbox via a 3rd party email host that I also have (a different domain name than comcast) and the alias information was plainly visible. Thus it seems to invalidate the theory that comcast is stripping the To: headers. My third party email host is “webmail.us”, I haven’t done the experiment with them yet today….

Occassionally I get email from spammers that has nothing in the TO: box, and I suspect all the recipients are in the BCC box. But the header yeilds absolutely no information about the alias that was used to reach me.

Another group mailing list (from my wife’s church) comes to my mailbox every few weeks and the sender told me she uses BCC to send, and the same thing happens. I cannot tell what alias she is using to send them to me.

I, too, have been using the “invent-an-email-address-on-the-fly” method for a couple of years now, and this worries me that I can receive an email and have no idea what address is the culprit.

it is possible that your mail provider (Comcast) strips the “for:” header before dropping the mail in your mailbox (I have no clue either why some mail servers do that). Maybe you could do the comparison with another mailbox you have?

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