While in Amarillo today, I stopped at one store to buy about $20 worth of supplies.

Everything went well and I paid with cash. They wanted an insane amount of information to complete the sale.

By the time they got to the e-mail address, I was kind of irritated so I gave them one of my most convoluted e-mail addresses that is not intended to be entered manually.

Replacing the domain with "example.com" for the purpose of privacy, the e-mail address I gave was 2.718281828459045235360287471352@example.com.

I like it. After all, My initial is 'e' so having the first N digits of e is perfect.

The sales girl worked really hard to enter it correctly and after a few bad starts, she got the user name part of the e-mail address entered. After that, the remaining issue was insurmountable. The store's sales software only allowed the entry of 40 or so character e-mail addresses. She could only enter part of the domain and could not finish.

My obvious objection to giving out my useful e-mail addresses is that I don't want vendors to pass the e-mail addresses around and resulting in highly irritating levels of spam. So ideally, I don't want to hand out 2.718281828459045235360287471352@example.com either.

For future events, I'm thinking of creating a few addresses like those in my signature block that are automagically forwarded to my actual e-mail address. Then, if it starts getting spammed, I just delete that address and won't receive anything to it any more while leaving my actual e-mail address in a more or less pristine condition.

bthotugigem05 said:

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Just put an extra period in a gmail address. Gmail ignores periods in email addresses so you'll still get it but you can set a filter to automatically forward emails sent to likes.math.a.little.too.much@gmail to a spam folder

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ProtonMail does that, too. Also, if I remember correctly, with underscores and hyphens.

Yeah, but that can be easily defeated and gives the senders information about your actual e-mail address.

Another approach is to use '+' aliases, but most spammers can easily just take the '+' alias portion out.

The SimpleLogin approach is really nice. It acts as a middleman. The sender e-mails the SimpleLogin address, SimpleLogin forwards the e-mail to me. If I respond to the e-mail, it goes back to SimpleLogin which then replaces my e-mail address with the SimpleLogin address and sends it back. The sender never has my information at all. If I start getting spammed at that address, I just log into SimpleLogin and delete the address. Problem solved.

Ghost of Bisbee said:

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I read the OP no less than 5x and still don't understand

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Basically, I got aggravated at all the extra information required for a simple cash purchase of hat cleaning supplies. Their competitor across the street doesn't require any extra information for a sale.

After getting aggravated by the number of requests, instead of giving her a fake e-mail address or a throw-away e-mail address, I gave her an e-mail address that was never intended for anyone to enter by hand. Believe me, that is far from my most complicated e-mail addresses.

eric76 said:

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bthotugigem05 said:

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Just put an extra period in a gmail address. Gmail ignores periods in email addresses so you'll still get it but you can set a filter to automatically forward emails sent to likes.math.a.little.too.much@gmail to a spam folder

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ProtonMail does that, too. Also, if I remember correctly, with underscores and hyphens.

Yeah, but that can be easily defeated and gives the senders information about your actual e-mail address.

Another approach is to use '+' aliases, but most spammers can easily just take the '+' alias portion out.

The SimpleLogin approach is really nice. It acts as a middleman. The sender e-mails the SimpleLogin address, SimpleLogin forwards the e-mail to me. If I respond to the e-mail, it goes back to SimpleLogin which then replaces my e-mail address with the SimpleLogin address and sends it back. The sender never has my information at all. If I start getting spammed at that address, I just log into SimpleLogin and delete the address. Problem solved.

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Proton Pass will create unique aliases for each account, as well that are very different than your email address.

By the way, I like to test the bounds on such issues as e-mail. For example, when I read that the longest legal e-mail address is 255 characters, I naturally tested that out.

In particular, the Christmas before last, I took pi to nearly 255 characters and and added it to a math guy' in California's e-mail address as a '+' alias and then wished him Merry Christmas.

Some systems use a hyphen alias instead of a plus alias. I like those because most people don't realize that can be done.

There are a number of other things to try with e-mail. For example, e-mail addresses with spaces in them are actually allowed b the rules, but I don't know any provider who actually use them.

There is plenty of bogus information about e-mail addresses. For example, it is easy to find people who say that the username/local part of an e-mail address cannot have spaces. Whilie I have yet to find any actual e-mail provider that permits them, it is actually possible.

For example, "RFC 3696 Section 3 Restrictions on e-mail addresses" explicitly indicates that the username/local part of an e-mail can have a space provided that it is quoted. From the RFC:

Quote:

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The exact rule is that any ASCII character, including control characters, may appear quoted, or in a quoted string. When quoting is needed, the backslash character is used to quote the following character. For example

Abc\@def@example.com

is a valid form of an email address. Blank spaces may also appear, as in

Fred\ Bloggs@example.com

The backslash character may also be used to quote itself, e.g.,

Joe.\\Blow@example.com

In addition to quoting using the backslash character, conventional double-quote characters may be used to surround strings. For example

"Abc@def"@example.com

"Fred Bloggs"@example.com

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This is tempting me to test the rules again.

By the way, one thing that is fun is to replace your name in ascii on the e-mail with your name in unicode. You can, for example, include your name in such a way that it looks pretty normal except that it is bold. It really makes your e-mails stick out in your corresondent's e-mail folder.

Rex Racer said:

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eric76 said:

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bthotugigem05 said:

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Just put an extra period in a gmail address. Gmail ignores periods in email addresses so you'll still get it but you can set a filter to automatically forward emails sent to likes.math.a.little.too.much@gmail to a spam folder

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ProtonMail does that, too. Also, if I remember correctly, with underscores and hyphens.

Yeah, but that can be easily defeated and gives the senders information about your actual e-mail address.

Another approach is to use '+' aliases, but most spammers can easily just take the '+' alias portion out.

The SimpleLogin approach is really nice. It acts as a middleman. The sender e-mails the SimpleLogin address, SimpleLogin forwards the e-mail to me. If I respond to the e-mail, it goes back to SimpleLogin which then replaces my e-mail address with the SimpleLogin address and sends it back. The sender never has my information at all. If I start getting spammed at that address, I just log into SimpleLogin and delete the address. Problem solved.

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Proton Pass will create unique aliases for each account, as well that are very different than your email address.

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Yeah. ProtonPass and SimpleLogin are tied together.

ProtonPass is a password manager that, I think, uses SimpleLogin to create the e-mail addresses used.

That said, I think that ProtonPass just creates through SimpleLogin, if asked, the e-mail addresses that tie into the web site name. For example, distrilo.qzm7y@8shield.net. I don't believe it will create an e-mail address such as 4229e97a-2685-436f-84ab-9bd6ee568d4d@8shield.net but you can create one like this with SimpleLogin.

If, on the other hand, you want to sign up for a mailing list, ProtonPass can't do it because it wants to be a password manager. For that, you use SimpleLogin.

If you know of a way to create an e-mail address such as the one below using ProtonPass, I would love to know it.

But we vendors are people too, and must do business!

I'd like to know how you remembered that long email that you 'randomly' entered.

tk for tu juan said:

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e to the power of one (e^1)

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ok....thaaaaaat's why I wasn't a math major.

92Ag95 said:

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I'd like to know how you remembered that long email that you 'randomly' entered.

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There is nothing random about the digits of e. e is a very specific irrational number and is one of the most useful numbers in mathematics.

In fact, the numbers e, i (square root of -1), pi, 0 (additive identity), and 1 (multiplicative identity) are all related by Euler's Formula:



I pulled up the ProtonMail e-mail app on my cell phone and read it to her. Then after she got lost entering the digits, I handed her the cell phone so that she could read it as she entered it.

Why not 979-260-3212?

For my customers, when we are talking about how to route spam callers, I always tell them I send them to the National Weather Service: (202) 936-1212

Ever had a bad colleague? Cheating ex? Crappy neighbor? Busybody HOA person? Always good to keep around a list to be bombed by retailers.

BQ2001 said:

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at a place like that my go to is bob.loblaw@loblaw.com. Feel sorry if that is a real email address for all the crap I've sent that way over the years. If they need a phone number it's 979-867-5309

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This has to to be one of the nerdiest threads I've seen in the Nerdery.

I have an email address just for junk at gmail but, for things I actually might need and to see if they sell my email address, I make up one-offs at my domain. SiriusXM needs an email? They get sirius@domain.com - if it shows up somewhere else, I know they sold my info, etc.

As for phone numbers, the wife and I both still use our last landline we had but got rid of in like 2004. Whoever owns it now probably HATES us.

I venture over to the Nerdery once every few months just out of curiosity.

Came to the Nerdery just now, read through this thread, and was immediately reminded why it will be another few months before I come back.

I always use a standard alias for the domain asking for the information. So if this were at a Home Depot for example, I'll use admin@homedepot.com (or sales, or support, or similar). This is usually good for at least a little smirk from the clerk. …

I refuse to give up my email for inconsequential purchases. If you're from but polite they'll do whatever is necessary to skip the requirement.

Yeah. As others have said. I've never had a problem with a simple "no thank you" when asked for an email address.

Philip J Fry said:

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Why not 979-260-3212?

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25+ years later and that number still bring back memories.

If I get a haircut at Sports Clips, they require you to sign in with a phone number. I always enter 999-999-9999 and it comes up with a list of a few thousand names associated with that number. Just put your name in and proceed as normal.

If places require that info, I tell them no, it's that simple. If they can't skip it, just have the cashier make something up.

Just tell them no and they usually skip it. At least a lot stores that ask for my phone number and email do.

If I'm giving it I better get something in return.

For example, I wanted the ol sarge baseball Peter Millar polo from aggieland outfitters but thought it was marked up too high.

Well when I went to the store they gave me 15% off my order for signing up for their email list.

Next time, I'll have a one time non traceable e-mail address for them.

I need some gaiters. I wonder if they carry thiem.

This.