Here is a little trick that I use to protect myself against spam, and to help catch website owners who sell out their user’s privacy.
To do this though you will need a Gmail account, don’t worry though because it’s from Google and it’s absolutely free.
Now I have a double opt-in email list, a privacy policy stating I won’t spam you or sell your information… but you’re probably thinking,”So what, you could still be some shady scam artist just waiting to sell our information!”
And you’d be partially correct, because there is no guarantee that a privacy policy will keep your information safe (but don’t worry I hate spam as much as the next guy and won’t contribute to the problem). A privacy policy offers you only limited protection, so here is how you can take matters into your own hands and catch those who sell your information.
So lets say you stumble across this dropshippingsuccess.com, you’re worried about giving your information because you don’t entirely trust that the site will keep it private. Here is what you can do.
Gmail allows you to add a “+” to your email address. I usually sign up for new websites like this: example+websitename @ gmail.com All mail will still end up in your personal email inbox. This is not creating a new email address, it will just allow you to better filter your incoming emails.
Here is an example…
Lets say your personal email address is example @ gmail.com
But instead of signing up for my email list with example @ gmail.com, sign up with: example+dropshippingsuccess @ gmail.com
No matter what you sign up with the emails will be delivered to the same place.
So now what? What good does this do you might be thinking? Well for starters, if you notice that you are getting a bunch of spam emails you can check the details. If you don’t recognize the person or business that the email is coming from than all you need to do is check who the email address is being sent to, and you’ll be able to find out who is selling your info. So if you get some emails from some guy claiming to be a Nigerian prince, and he’s sending email to example+dropshippingsuccess @ gmail.com, you’ll know that I was the one who betrayed you. If you catch me ever doing this I give you full permission to bad mouth all over the internet, and I will proceed to hang my head in shame.
But what now, your email is still going to be flooded with junk right?
Nope, now all we need to do is set up some filters! Here’s how…
Step 1:
Login to your Gmail account and click the “labels” tab near the top of the screen, as can be seen in the picture below.
Step 2:
Select the “Manage Labels” option, as can be seen in the picture below.
Step 3:
Once there click on the “Filters” tab near the top and then select “Create a new filter” as can be seen below.
Step 4:
Enter in the email address that is getting spammed in the “To:” box, then click “next step”.
Step 5:
Check the “Delete it” option, and then create the filter.
Now it’s almost like the mistake of trusting your email address to the wrong never happened. It’s not perfect, and it does require a bit of leg work. Though it is well worth it to keep your inbox clean and clutter free, and to catch those who betray your trust.
Hope you can put this trick to good use, enjoy!
