debate Catchall for Domain Emails

I've been trying to figure out a way to create catch-all setup for all my domains (~500+ domains) while still ensuring that they land users at their current landing pages (or parking pages as the case may be). Still yet to figure out a simple and easy way to achieve this.

Are you already doing this? If so, how?

I've used this in the past and it works really well: http://improvmx.com/

IMHO, being "ethical" would be something along the lines of not having catchall email in the first place.

Why do it? What do you gain from it?

https://www.namepros.com/threads/am-i-involved-in-something-illegal.1014559/page-2

jberryhill said:

Is it risky? Yes, it is riskier to use catch-all forwarding than it is to simply use specific email addresses. Why? Well, on the one hand you can't be held responsible for things that people send you by mistake. ON THE OTHER HAND, you know it is happening, you know why it is happening, you know it's going to keep happening, and you have the ability to make a lot of it stop happening. On a scale of marginally "is this riskier than that", then it is pretty obvious that, whatever the circumstances, you are less responsible for bouncing misdirected emails than you are for receiving them and doing whatever someone might accuse you of doing with them.

These kinds of questions are not always so much a matter of "is it okay to do X" but whether you might be accused of doing something else entirely. Sure, if someone accuses you of mishandling confidential information under circumstances where you knew this was happening, you could probably come out just fine after spending thousands in legal fees to deal with whatever it is they might accuse you of.

Click to expand...

If someone sends a misdirected email to a non-existent address, they get a bounce message, check the address, and re-send.

If someone sends a misdirected email to a catchall email address, they get no notification that it didn't go where it was intended, and could suffer harm as a result of their mistaken belief it was sent. Are you liable for that? No.

But why set the trap in the first place? Because if something goes sideways as a result of your receipt of that email, they are not going to believe you didn't intend it to happen. They will sue you and, again, after you go through that ordeal, you may come out just fine, and 10's of thousands of dollars poorer for having proved yourself not to be liable.

I just don't understand the purpose of doing it, so perhaps you'd like to explain why.

sarah.kate said:

I've used this in the past and it works really well: http://improvmx.com/

Click to expand...

Okay, so you route all of the email through a service operated by people using WHOIS privacy, no terms of service, and no information about themselves at all.

You have no idea what information they are collecting about all of the emails routed through them or what they are doing with the email addresses they collect.

Their service is free, so they are just doing this out of the goodness of their anonymous hearts, yes?

@JBH I understand the issue that this may pose. But on the other hand, if you have auto-replies on all incoming emails which let senders know this is a wrong email and that they should "check your spelling."

Now, if they are interested they can get this domain at this or that marketplace or just send an email to this or that email address.

As you mentioned, a bounced email is just the server's response that the email doesn't exist, and they should check the email address or the host. Now, some users are not aware why the email doesn't work, while an auto response setup will be more useful to senders.

The auto-reply message can be something like:
--------------
Hello,

You have reached [Company Name] by emailing [recipiant's email address]. Please check your spelling and try again. Also, please note that the domain/website/host name is for sale. Type it in to find more information.

Thank you,
[signature]
--------------

Unlike a bounced message you kill few birds in one.
1. You let the sender know that the email is wrong.
2. You let a potential buyer know that the domain is for sale.


@anantj you asked how it's done? As far as I know, registrars will allow you to do an email forwarding to you emails. So what you will need to do is to set up a free or paid email box to a domain(s) and add the forward set the catchall or as "*". Just contact your registrar's support or look on their support pages on how to set this type of function.


Now, it might be ethical or not ethical to receive these emails. What I don't understand, how would it be illegal? I mean @jberryhill you mentioned the people might get into trouble and all sort of things, but how. It's not like I am going to a company's servers and soliciting this information from them intentionally. It is the company's or sender's responsibility to make sure that the emails that they are sending are going to a legit address.