Catch-all
A catch-all account is a mailbox set up to receive every email sent to non-existent addresses on a domain
What it means, how it is used and where it comes up, with its related concepts.
What it is and how it works
If someone writes to a mistyped or non-existent address, such as moc.niamodpfni instead of moc.niamodofni, the message is not bounced but delivered to that general mailbox, reducing the risk of losing legitimate mail.
The drawback is that it also attracts large volumes of spam sent to made-up addresses. In email marketing, catch-all domains make it hard to verify whether an address is real, because the server accepts everything; validation tools usually flag them as unknown risk. It should not be confused with catch-all marketing, a targeting approach.
Also known as
catch-all mailbox, wildcard email
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