Do you want to know how to modify your Gmail address in order to create dozens of variations that appear unique to senders without creating new Gmail accounts? Then this article is for you.
Place a Dot Anywhere
Gmail ignores periods in addresses, which means that if you include a dot anywhere in your email, Gmail will treat it as if it does not exist. However, any website for which you register will recognize your dotted email address as distinct from your non-dotted one; this means you can register for multiple accounts on the same website without requiring multiple email accounts.
Here are a few examples. Keep in mind that each address is identical, which means that you could send mail to all of them and it would all arrive in the same Inbox.
You cannot add a period after the @ sign, but everything preceding it is editable. You can even include multiple periods, as follows:
Again, Google indicates that all three email addresses above are identical. You could, however, create three Twitter accounts using those addresses because Twitter assumes each address belongs to a unique person.
Exception to the Add a Dot
Additionally, you could add several periods adjacent to one another. This method, however, works only for logging into Gmail; if two dots are adjacent to one another, you cannot send someone a message.
- these…..are…..the…[email protected]
- theseare.the…..s.am…[email protected]
- t.hese.a.r…[email protected]
Include a Plus Sign
Another way to generate multiple Gmail addresses using only a syntax trick is to add a plus sign (before the @) to the end of the username. This enables you to add additional words to your address, resulting in a significantly different appearance.
The following are some additional examples for the email address [email protected]:
Reasons for Including a Plus Sign
Therefore, why would you want to include a plus sign in your Gmail address? Apart from deceiving some websites into allowing you to create multiple accounts, you can more easily determine whether a website is selling your email address to advertisers.
For instance, if you sign up for a website using the email address [email protected] and immediately begin receiving emails from companies you’ve never contacted, you can bet that the website you signed up for shared your email address.
In addition, you can create Gmail filters using your plus-sign addresses. For instance, if you sign up for an email newsletter using the joeman+ilovehunting address mentioned previously, you could configure Gmail to automatically filter emails sent to that address into a folder containing only messages from that hunting newsletter.
How to Configure Email Filters for Addresses That Have Been Hacked
How to configure email filters using your hacked Gmail address is as follows:
- On the upper right-hand side of Gmail, click the gear icon, and then click See All Settings from the drop-down menu.
- From the Tabs list, select Filters and Blocked Addresses.
- At the bottom of the page, click Create a new filter.
- In the To text box, type the unique Gmail address. For instance, if you want to filter all emails sent to [email protected], you could type [email protected].
- Select the Create filter option.
- Select a label next to Apply the label to automatically move messages sent to this address to a specific folder. Also, that drop-down menu contains an option for creating a new label.
Likewise, select any additional options you wish to enable, such as Mark as read or Never send it to Spam.
- To complete the filter, click Create filter.
Periods and Plus Signs Are Ignored by Gmail
These Gmail address customizations are possible due to Google’s disregard for periods and plus signs in email addresses. It treats all incoming mail, regardless of whether it contains a dot or a plus sign, as belonging to the same account. Periods and plus signs are simply not present in Gmail.
If this is confusing, consider the following: When you signed up for Gmail and selected your email address, you could have used the tricks described above and ended up with the same address you currently have. Indeed, you can log into Gmail using one of these modified addresses, and Google will redirect you to the same email account with the same emails, contacts, and other data.