If you have email service as part of a hosting package from PerfectWeb, you have the option of having a "catch-all" email account that will receive email addressed to all addresses at your domain not specifically assigned to someone. So if someone sends email to "whatever@yourdomain.com," the email will be received in the catch-all email account.
There are a couple of advantages to having a catch-all email address. If someone mistypes your email address, you will still receive the email. For example, if you use the email address "sales@yourdomain.com," and someone accidentally types in "sale@yourdomain.com," you will still receive the email. Also, you can use a unique email address with each company you interact with. You will know if one company sells your email address and you can shut down the account. For example, if you place an online order with Acme Corp., you could fill out the order form with the email address "acme@yourdomain.com." If a month later you start receiving lots of spam (unsolicited email) addressed to "acme@yourdomain.com," you know which company sold your address, and you can then contact PerfectWeb to have that address set to "discard," so you know longer receive email to that specific address. You might also choose not to do further business with Acme, since they did not protect your personal information.
The downside of a catch-all email account is the quantity of spam you might receive. One favorite trick of spammers is to send email to a long list of names at a domain. For example, the same spam message might be sent to "joe@yourdomain.com," "frank@yourdomain.com," "nancy@yourdomain.com," etc. The spammers are hoping some of those addresses exist and their email will be delivered to at least a few people. If you have a catch-all account, you will receive all the messages. Several recent computer worms (similar to viruses) send out infected email to a wide variety of names at each domain. This has made catch-all email accounts less appealing due to the high volume of spam.
If you would like to review your email settings and perhaps make some changes, please contact us.
And please help fight spam by doing one simple thing...never respond to an offer in an unsolicted email message.
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There are a couple of advantages to having a catch-all email address. If someone mistypes your email address, you will still receive the email. For example, if you use the email address "sales@yourdomain.com," and someone accidentally types in "sale@yourdomain.com," you will still receive the email. Also, you can use a unique email address with each company you interact with. You will know if one company sells your email address and you can shut down the account. For example, if you place an online order with Acme Corp., you could fill out the order form with the email address "acme@yourdomain.com." If a month later you start receiving lots of spam (unsolicited email) addressed to "acme@yourdomain.com," you know which company sold your address, and you can then contact PerfectWeb to have that address set to "discard," so you know longer receive email to that specific address. You might also choose not to do further business with Acme, since they did not protect your personal information.
The downside of a catch-all email account is the quantity of spam you might receive. One favorite trick of spammers is to send email to a long list of names at a domain. For example, the same spam message might be sent to "joe@yourdomain.com," "frank@yourdomain.com," "nancy@yourdomain.com," etc. The spammers are hoping some of those addresses exist and their email will be delivered to at least a few people. If you have a catch-all account, you will receive all the messages. Several recent computer worms (similar to viruses) send out infected email to a wide variety of names at each domain. This has made catch-all email accounts less appealing due to the high volume of spam.
If you would like to review your email settings and perhaps make some changes, please contact us.
And please help fight spam by doing one simple thing...never respond to an offer in an unsolicted email message.
Back to Resources main page
