bbs.spamgourmet.com

Has anybody else encountered sites that block/refuse @spamgourmet.com addresses?

From Discover Card Customer Service
Date Received: 11/09/2011 10:06 AM

...

Certain e-mail addresses are set aside for use by more than one individual and do not always provide full security for your personal information. Among these are addresses containing the words "webmaster", "info", "sales" and "spamgourmet." These are automatically blocked to protect your privacy.

Please provide a different e-mail address so that you may continue to receive e-mail alerts and other information.

...

Update: 2011-11-21, after trying to explain to them that the username is not shared. They replied with:

Certain e-mail addresses are set aside for use by more than one individual and do not always provide full security for your personal information. Among these are addresses containing the words "webmaster", "info", "spam" and "sales." These words located in either the "user name" or "domain name" location are automatically blocked to protect your privacy.

There are other posts that suggest aliases to "spamgourmet.com"

It seems Bank of America won't send a message to dfgh.net. Let us know if DiscoverCard allows it. They imply they will.

I had tried a few of the alternates, but either gmail would not accept them, or the bank didn't like them.
Right now recursor.net seems to work for Discover and gmail.

jpa wrote:I had tried a few of the alternates, but either gmail would not accept them, or the bank didn't like them.
Right now recursor.net seems to work for Discover and gmail.

while the bug causing me problems is now fixed (http://bbs.spamgourmet.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1480), be weary of using SG for highly sensitive or emails that require 100% reliability. i say this because there are a couple of reasons to be concerned.

primarily having someone in between you and your mail server created inherent lag when processing/receiving email to your protected address. sometimes its near-instant, other times it can take some time to get the email. depending on the nature or need for the email delivery, this lag may be unacceptable or sometimes frustrating. (minor issue)

another concern is potential for needing sensitive emails or password reset links sent to you. as much as i enjoy and trust the free service SG provides, the risk of plaintext passwords and password reset links that ANYONE can click really hits home when you consider these emails are passing through SG first before they get to you. Obviously the forwarding process is automated, but consider a security breech where an unscrupulous person may have access to emails you may not want them to see.

otherwise, discover and other card companies are not the only ones who block some of SGs domains.. might be a good idea to start a list or form in which we can update with sites that recognize SG domains so we can be more informed on who allows what.

That's a funny message to me, because the truth is that almost no email service can guarantee the safety of information - SMTP is inherently insecure. If every particpant in the chain of an email insists on encryption, then the message will be encrypted on the wire. But if one refuses or it doesn't work somehow, the default is plain text.

That said, they're right in a way, spamgourmet (along with just about every other email related service) can't guarantee the security of personal information. If they're singling out spamgourmet, it could be because they want to make sure they and their affiliates can send you commercial solicitation messages whenever they want. But they are a bank / financial institution, and so I give them the benefit of the doubt that they have a genuine concern for security. And of course, spamgourmet is a middleman in between them and you, so it makes sense - their message doesn't convey that very well.

So... This kind of underscores the point we try to make in the terms of use and the FAQ that you shouldn't rely on spamgourmet for important or sensitive stuff. No electronic service is invulnerable to compromise (Discover, spamgourmet, nobody). We on the spamgourmet team have accumulated experience and hopefully merit some trust, but you gotta be careful out there. For things like this, it's best to use institutions you trust (and I suppose Discover is as trustworthy as any) and reduce the number of people/companies involved to the bare minimum to reduce the number of points of failure.

I filled my complaint against AT&T (a bait and switch, overcharging, contract voiding scum bag ISP) with scambook.com. After I filled in all the information they wanted an email address. They would not take dfgh.net. I'll see if I get an increase in spam to the address I gave them.

I know its an old thread but I just had to chip in here.

You really shouldn't use email forwarders of any sort for discover or any financial institutions. First of all, you have trusted them with your SSN. Is your email that much more important than that ?? Second, when you use a forwarder, your email provider cannot verify that the email came from them. You are basically setting yourself up for phishing since you have just lost one level of protection that you otherwise would have had.

In the case of financial companies, the SG address is how you find out that they have let your information be stolen and then report them to their regulators so the theft can be investigated and those responsible can be criminally prosecuted (which does happen in my jurisdiction, if not in yours). Such reports are what pinned down one major British bank that couldn't dodge when lots of customers pointed out that the addresses had only been given to them.

In my experience, financial companies are less problematic than pharmacies but worse than general retailers, perhaps because the financial sites are more attractive targets because of the extra information they have and hence more likely to be attacked.

It doesn't have to be SG and disposables, of course. You can use different webmail accounts for each institution and avoid one type of middleman.

Discover card, on 2014-03-29, did take a dfgh.net address.

They've not abused it yet, but I neglected to read their privacy policy. They say they do marketing. I'm 95% sure they sold my address to Re/Max (The timing on a post card about renting was just too good).