Best way for Email Forwarding - Domain, Second Gmail account or something else? Please

ih8stress

Hi

Read a few threads on email forwarding/domains/different accounts etc and totally confusing myself in the process about everything, ha ha.

Basically I have a gmail email address and have used the + and . options for creating a different email address in the past but obviously this is not very good, as easy to work out the original one.

I thought it would be a good idea to forward the gmail emails, so I could 'hide' my proper email address and delete any gmail ones that get spammed/hacked etc.

I would like the following:

1) A separate, more private email address to only use for family and things like banking emails

2) A separate 'throwaway' one for online shopping, internet stuff etc.

Then, if either of them gets compromised/spammed alot, I can delete them and create a new one.

My first consideration was getting a cheap domain for the new email address (for family etc)

and keeping the gmail one for online stuff.

My second thought was to get a new email address possibly from either gmx.com or protonmail.com

My third thought was to ask you lovely folks on here before I tie myself completely in knots with it all

Thanks in advance, and 'hello' to anyone still around who recognises me

debitcardmayhem

ih8stress said:

Hi

Read a few threads on email forwarding/domains/different accounts etc and totally confusing myself in the process about everything, ha ha.

Basically I have a gmail email address and have used the + and . options for creating a different email address in the past but obviously this is not very good, as easy to work out the original one.

I thought it would be a good idea to forward the gmail emails, so I could 'hide' my proper email address and delete any gmail ones that get spammed/hacked etc.

I would like the following:

1) A separate, more private email address to only use for family and things like banking emails

2) A separate 'throwaway' one for online shopping, internet stuff etc.

Then, if either of them gets compromised/spammed alot, I can delete them and create a new one.

My first consideration was getting a cheap domain for the new email address (for family etc)

and keeping the gmail one for online stuff.

My second thought was to get a new email address possibly from either gmx.com or protonmail.com

My third thought was to ask you lovely folks on here before I tie myself completely in knots with it all

Thanks in advance, and 'hello' to anyone still around who recognises me

Hello who are you 🤡, will get back later v busy at the moment, dinner

victor2

I have my own domain with (I think) up to 30 email addresses and unlimited forwarders. If I have to register a new online account for something, I use a unique address (such as tesco@mydomain.com) and setup a forwarder to forward any emails to my real address. I have over 100 forwarders and if I see spam coming through one of them, can just delete it.

You just have to be careful not to reply to a forwarded email as it will be from your real address. In the rare occasion I do need to send an email from one of the forwarders, I can create an actual email account for it and use it through webmail.

oldernonethewiser

I use gmx for stuff that is generally unimportant and my own domain email for stuff that is.

If I didn't have my own I would use proton for the important stuff.

TMSG

I have a couple of gmail accounts which I give to friends, relatives and use as-is for the really important stuff, ie banks, HMRC etc. I also have a few aliases (ie forwarders) for these accounts with duckduckgo (see https://duckduckgo.com/email/ ). This is pretty nifty and works really well but has a bit of a learning curve if you want to use its full potential.

Other than that I frequently use yopmail.com for burner email addresses though I never use @yopmail.com as the domain (as it's blocked by some sites) but their domain of the day which changes every day . Never was rejected so far.

robatwork

I have the "robatwork.online" domain (where robatwork = my surname). It's with a cheap provider who has a global forwarding for anything@robatwork.online which goes to my normal email, plus a few like swmbo@robatwork.online which goes to my wife. 

The downside is that some annoying websites, BT being a particular lowlight, don't accept .online can be the domain for an email address, so can't register.

If I did it again I'd go for .com or .co.uk, but the principle works well. And if I get spam, I know who leaked the email address. 

ih8stress

Hi

Thank you everyone for all the comments/advice so far, really appreciated

@debitcardmayhem dB) No rush, DCM, hope you enjoy your dinner

@victor2 thank you for the advice on replying to forwarded emails

@ol@oldernonethewiser - so proton is better than gmx, thanks

@TMSG that duckduckgo email forwarding sounds really interesting, thanks

@robatwork thanks for the domain . advice

I think domains might sound abit too fiddly for me and also am concerned about future 'evolving/merging' of them and the yearly renewals.

The simplest one (for me) sounds like the duckduck one.  I wasn't sure if I could have more than one gmail account, so would be good if I had a couple. I need to change the one I have though as I was one of the Capita hack victims.

Anyone else using or have experience of the duckduckgo email forwarder?

Thanks

Yorkie1

ih8stress said:

I wasn't sure if I could have more than one gmail account, so would be good if I had a couple. I need to change the one I have though as I was one of the Capita hack victims.

Thanks

I have two gmail accounts without any problems (actually three, if you count the one I set up for an association I'm involved with).

I use one for the more disposable shopping type of stuff; my main one is for banks and friends family etc.

TMSG

Two further remarks. You can have as many gmail accounts as you want. Before starting to use duckduckgo and yopmail I had six or seven.

As to @victor2's warning re the actual address being used for replies, at least for duckduckgo that's not true. They have a clever system where you just answer an email as usual and this is then routed to them and then forwarded to the recipient with your ddg address and not your real address. Works perfectly.

ih8stress

Thanks @Yorkie1 and @TMSG for your replies about gmail accounts.

I'll set up a couple of new gmails and then sort out the duckduckgo.

Can I just ask you both, did you have to open separate, new gmail accounts, or can you do it from within your first (original) gmail account.

Many thanks

Yorkie1

It's a while ago now, but if memory serves me right I did it on my phone, just added an account