Email Alias - Do you use them?

[GIZBUG]

Wondering if any users on here can give me a few good reasons why they use Email Alias. I have not tried it yet, but curious to give them a try.
My gmail address seems to have been compromised/distributed (dark web) and I want to ensure my other gmail and my iCloud do not fall prey to that. The account wasn't hacked, but I get non-stop junk mail with people signing up for crap with my email, and notifications from a few services I use that says the email address was sold or distributed on the black web.

That is what brings me to these email alias's. Wondering if I create one, if it is beneficial (say for signing up on message boards, or using them for general account signups for stuff?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Huntn]

Here I was thinking this was something that was magic, like a one time use visa number. I looked it up and discovered that an email alias is just using multiple emails and having them tied together and I’ve been doing this for years, ever since Gmail came along and I could easily set up multiple identities (6) and then tie them all together so replies are all forwarded to one master address. In this way I have emails for different purposes. But my discipline has broken down in that regard, don’t always follow that rule.

I reserve the use of the email that includes an abbreviation of my name, and includes my last name for use with real world entities like work/business related, doctors, utilities, and the like. This is the main reason I use the others.

What is ironic is that my email discipline has gone to hell in the last decade, I no longer religiously check my email unless I’m expecting something in particular. I tell everyone I know personally or though a business connection if you want to reach me, text me or call, don’t email me.

How to Create a Gmail Alias

Gmail is one of the most popular email services in the world. It is free, easy to use, and easy to set up. The Google suite offers users so many neat

www.techjunkie.com

First off, what do we mean by an alias? Basically, using an alias just means sending an email through your Gmail account with a return address that goes to a different email account, or receiving email from a different email account to your Gmail inbox, or both.

 

[Silencio]

Email aliases predate Gmail by quite a bit. Contrary to popular belief, Google did not invent email.

I use aliases if I don't trust a service or vendor to not sell or give away my email address to marketing lists. I did catch a couple of aliases that were "compromised" in that way and simply deleted them from my account. Problem solved.

 

[faust]

I use one provided to me by the FSF because I am a donating member.

 

[D.T.]

Right, so there's an email account with a matching mailbox, and then you can have that same mailbox get emails from aliases:

Primary/Mailbox dt@bigbiz.com
Alias1 info@bigbiz.com
Alias2 sales@bigbiz.com


The two aliases use the Primary email box, and that's the primary account control, security, etc. Nothing is stored for info@ it's only used as an address for routing an email. You can use the alias a a reply to, but the primary routing account is still fingerprinted.

 

[eyoungren]

I set one up on Yahoo once. That was just because when I signed up for Yahoo in 1999 they didn't have the exact email address I wanted. The alias is in a different Yahoo domain (ymail) but allowed me to have what I wanted. I forget it's there.

I tend to collect email addresses rather than aliases. I've got an address that's in Australia, one that's in the UK/Ireland and so on. I've got a Swedish domain name that is my last name (I'm 6th generation Swede in America).

Once I figured out that by having my own domain names I could have any email address I wished…things compounded.

I use them for various things as I don't like handing out my primary email address unless you're a friend or my boss.

 

[satcomer]

To me I keep at least two email addresses for life! One for family and very close friends and other is online buying/selling!

 

[compwiz1202]

Email aliases predate Gmail by quite a bit. Contrary to popular belief, Google did not invent email.

I use aliases if I don't trust a service or vendor to not sell or give away my email address to marketing lists. I did catch a couple of aliases that were "compromised" in that way and simply deleted them from my account. Problem solved.

I've read about people who use a different alias for every single account, so they can instantly pinpoint the shady one if they start getting junk to one of them.