Add a Dot Anywhere
Gmail ignores periods in addresses, so put a dot anywhere in your email, and Gmail will pretend it doesn’t exist. Any website you sign up for, though, will see your dotted email address as different than your non-dotted one; this means you can sign up for multiple accounts on the same website without needing multiple email accounts. Below are some examples. Keep in mind that each address is the exact same, so you could send mail to all of these to reach the same Inbox.
j.oesfamily@gmail.comjo.esfamily@gmail.comjoe.sfamily@gmail.comjoes.family@gmail.comjoesf.amily@gmail.com
You can’t add a period after the @ sign, but anything before it is open for tweaking. You can even add more than one period, like this:
my.business.is.great@gmail.commybusiness.is.great@gmail.comm.y.business.i.s.g.r.eat@gmail.com
Again, all three email address above are exactly the same, according to Google. However, you could make three Twitter accounts with those addresses because Twitter assumes each address is from a different person.
Exception to Add a Dot
You could add several periods right next to each other, too. This method, however, works only for logging into Gmail; you can’t send someone a message if two dots are next to each other.
these.....are.....the.....same@gmail.comtheseare.the…..s.am…e@gmail.comt.hese.a.r…e.th.e.same@gmail.com
Add a Plus Sign
Another way to spawn different Gmail addresses with nothing but a syntax trick is to add a plus sign at the end of the username (before the @). Doing this lets you add other words to your address, so it actually can look quite different. Here are a few examples that expand on the email address joeman@gmail.com:
joeman+moretext@gmail.comjoeman+thatsmyname@gmail.comjoeman+ilovehunting@gmail.com
Reasons to Add a Plus Sign
So, why would you want to add a plus sign to your Gmail account? Besides tricking some websites into letting you making multiple accounts as described above, you can more easily understand whether a website is selling your email address to advertisers. For example, if after making an account on a website using joeman+possiblespam@gmail.com, you start getting emails sent to that unique address from companies you’ve never contacted, you can bet that the site you signed up for gave out your email address. You also can use your plus-sign addresses to set up Gmail filters. For example, if you sign up for an email newsletter with the joeman+ilovehunting example from above, you could make Gmail auto-filter emails sent to that address into a folder that contains messages only from that hunting newsletter.
How to Set up Email Filters With Hacked Addresses
Here’s how to set up email filters with your hacked Gmail address:
Gmail Ignores Periods and Plus Signs
These Gmail address tweaks are possible because Google ignores periods and plus signs in its email addresses. It treats all incoming mail, regardless of a dot or plus sign, as the exact same account. As far as Gmail is concerned, the periods and plus signs are simply not there. If this is confusing, consider this: When you signed up for Gmail and chose your email address, you could have used the tricks above and wound up with the same address you have. In fact, you can log in to Gmail using one of these tweaked addresses, and Google will take you to the same email account with the same emails, contacts, and other information.
