Financial Services and + in GMail

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Good Afternoon!

Because of longtime issues with my domain registrar, I am changing my primary e-mail address to a GMail address. I am utilizing the +XXX feature so that I can identify in the future where my spam is originating.

With my old e-mail address, I had an alias that I used exclusively for banking and financial service companies. So if an e-mail came in from Citibank to my main address, it was phishing.

I am finding that some financial service companies will not allow a + in the e-mail address. Today it was Amex- will not accept Me+Amex@GMail.com .

Have any of you found a way around this issue? Have any of you set up a way to know if an incoming banking e-mail is legitimate? I know not to click on incoming links. I have 2FA set up wherever I can.

Thanks in advance. / cel

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Have you tried using a . instead of a + instead? Example: me.amex@gmail.com.

No one has rejected my use of a dot, in GMail addresses, so far.

But I have not tried to use email aliases yet.

Instead of using a special character email alias, you could create multiple GMail accounts.  The problem then becomes managing multiple email addresses.

Rare for me to receive unsolicited spam from the GMail server.  Apparently, it gets filtered out before downloaded.  In fact, the GMail server sometimes filters out email I really want.

Ref:  https://blog.101domain.com/business-development/gmail-email-aliases

Windows 10 22H2 desktops & laptops on Dell, HP, ASUS; No servers, no domain.

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CelV wrote:

some financial service companies will not allow a + in the e-mail address

This may actually be an attempt to prevent you using aliases for registration purposes. Nice idea, but not much use in the real world – every email address is an alias.

cheers, Paul

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Thanks for your replies.

Unfortunately periods don’t work. I tested MyAddress.Amex@GMail.com and it was bounced back as undeliverable.

I could probably use beginning.ending@GMail.com to differentiate between financial and other e-mails, but scrutinizing each header for where the period is gets old quick. What I did use was 4Banking@domain.com . Incoming bank, credit card, etc. e-mails to an address other than that was phishing.

I was trying to avoid setting up a special use GMail account, but I think that’s my only recourse.

Thank you both for your input. / cel

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What you may want is an email address that has a low profile name — this name (address) would be only used for bank transactions and wouldn’t be internet visible.

Your unfortunate choice (.Bank…) screams hack me, hack me.

And don’t tell what your email name is here.

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When in doubt look at the header data that’s hard to fake.  I just looked at one in my spam folder that is supposed to be from paypal and in the header the original email is postmaster@teddy2012-something.com instead of service@paypal.com.  Is spam really that much of a problem?  None has slipped past my filter in a long time.

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CelV wrote:

Unfortunately periods don’t work. I tested MyAddress.Amex@GMail.com and it was bounced back as undeliverable.

I think you’re misunderstanding how periods are used. Try My.Address@gmail or MyAddr.ess@gmail.

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I absolutely despise sub-addressing. I much prefer true aliases. I usually don’t even enable it when setting up client accounts. Good points here:
https://simplelogin.io/blog/email-alias-vs-plus-sign/

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As cyberSAR said, dot / + addressing is well known and it’s simple for spammers to collect your real email address. In reality you have not used an alias.
AnonAddy makes it easy to use aliases.

cheers, Paul

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