Problem with similar sounding domains dilemma

[walesrob]

Let me explain what the problem is here.

My domain, which I've had for 15 years is for sake of argument rob**** co uk . I've been getting email for a domain sounding very similar - let’s call it robert**** co uk . The latter is a big estate agent in the UK, and I often get confidential documents emailed to me by mistake purely because of the extra ert in the domain name.

I'll cut to the chase; while the domain I own is somewhat precious to me, should I take my chances, contact the estate agents, tell them about the 'problem', explain how confidential documents get wrongly sent and offer to sell them my domain…. at a price. Would they tell me foxtrot oscar, or is it worth pursuing?

[William9]

I don't think you will lose anything. They will either (1) say they are not interested possibly in a rude way (2) ask for the senders so that they can contact them directly to make sure they use the correct address or (3) offer to buy your domain. It depends on to whom in the organization you are able to talk.

[kijinbear]

Why sell them your precious domain? Just tell them to get their sierra hotel india tango together so that their customers don't accidentally email you.

You could also change the first part of your email address to something that doesn't exist on the other domain (e.g. if you're using firstname@yourdomain, maybe change it to firstname.lastname, or vice versa) so that any email to the wrong recipient will bounce immediately. Even if the real estate agent can't be bothered to keep their affairs straight, their customers will quickly find out that they've emailed the wrong domain.

[Tsunami]

If the domain is precious to you, why consider selling it? And if the estate agent had problems they found serious enough, wouldn't they have already contacted you to make an offer to purchase the domain? I'd leave things as they are in your case.

[FredOnline]

Presumably catchall is delivering these - personally I don't use.

Unless, of course, you have a desperate need to.

[Gankaku]

Since your domain is precious to you, you're obviously going to have emotional issues selling it. The solutions above are good ones!

[walesrob]

Originally Posted by Gankaku

Since your domain is precious to you, you're obviously going to have emotional issues selling it. The solutions above are good ones!

It is precious to me, but if I can make a quick buck, I won't be precious to me anymore

I've taken on board everyone's contribution, and the way forward is to create rules to discard any email sent to any affected aliases, but I really think if people send very important emails containing confidential information should take care to check they've sent it to the right person. But, its human nature I suppose. I've done it myself.

[kijinbear]

Originally Posted by walesrob

It is precious to me, but if I can make a quick buck, I won't be precious to me anymore

Ah, you mean that kind of precious. Not the "One Ring to Rule them All" kind of precious... Yeah, I totally understand

Originally Posted by walesrob

create rules to discard any email sent to any affected aliases

No, no, no, don't discard them. Bounce them. Bounce them hard. That way, people will know that they just tried to send confidential documents to the wrong address. If you quietly discard their emails, they'll think their email got through, so they'll keep doing it. (Common sense says they should realize their mistake when the recipient still hasn't received their email after a week or so, but common sense tends not to apply in PEBCAK cases like this.) Also, making the situation more obvious might improve your chances of selling your domain

[n5bb]

I have my own domain email hosted at Fastmail (where I can use wildcard delivery but still disable certain aliases so they bounce as invalid addresses). From time to time I get email which it appears was meant for another domain. The worst offender was a university in the UK - I am in the US but my domain name is similar to a domain used in the UK for a different school. At one point I started receiving confidential messages to a student from the university.

They obviously didn't verify that the email address they had for the student was correct before sending me the confidential information. What they should have done is to send an initial message to the address asking the recipient to verify they were the person in question, ideally by asking them something which isn't commonly known. For example, when I add my email to many websites they send a confirming email, allowing me to respond if it was a mistake.

I tried replying to the series of emails from the school, but they seemed to ignore my messages. I finally sent warning messages about the breach of confidentiality to various officials at the university and their IT department, and after they still didn't respond after a couple of days I gave up and disabled that alias (so I couldn't use it, but the university would get "unknown account" bounces from then on).

Bill

[walesrob]

Originally Posted by n5bb

I have my own domain email hosted at Fastmail (where I can use wildcard delivery but still disable certain aliases so they bounce as invalid addresses). From time to time I get email which it appears was meant for another domain. The worst offender was a university in the UK - I am in the US but my domain name is similar to a domain used in the UK for a different school. At one point I started receiving confidential messages to a student from the university.

They obviously didn't verify that the email address they had for the student was correct before sending me the confidential information. What they should have done is to send an initial message to the address asking the recipient to verify they were the person in question, ideally by asking them something which isn't commonly known. For example, when I add my email to many websites they send a confirming email, allowing me to respond if it was a mistake.

I tried replying to the series of emails from the school, but they seemed to ignore my messages. I finally sent warning messages about the breach of confidentiality to various officials at the university and their IT department, and after they still didn't respond after a couple of days I gave up and disabled that alias (so I couldn't use it, but the university would get "unknown account" bounces from then on).

Bill

Thanks Bill, your posts are very helpful as ever.

How would I go about creating bounce rules in Fastmail? More importantly, in my many years of emailing, I often read not to create bounce notices for unknown aliases as it creates more problems. However I can see in my case it will have the required effect, as kijinbear pointed out, of letting people know that the email address doesn't exist.

[FredOnline]

Originally Posted by walesrob

How would I go about creating bounce rules in Fastmail?

Why seek a more complicated solution - just disable catchall?

[n5bb]

Originally Posted by walesrob

...How would I go about creating bounce rules in Fastmail? More importantly, in my many years of emailing, I often read not to create bounce notices for unknown aliases as it creates more problems...

In your Virtual Aliases table, create an alias which targets that same alias. In other words, if the alias is bad@yourdomain, use the target bad@yourdomain for that alias. This won't create an infinite loop, but will instead return this error to the sending system:

550 5.1.1 <bad@yourdomain>: Recipient address rejected: User unknown in local recipient table

This is a "mailbox does not exist" delivery error returned to the actual sending system, which is different from a "bounce" reply to the From address (which may be spoofed).

Bill