What does masking your email address mean?

Publishing your email address on the internet can mean that it gets picked up by automated programs run by individuals or companies who then send you unsolicited and/or fraudulent emails. These are usually fairly easy to distinguish from genuine respondents, but they can be irritating. More info on what to look out for on our scams page. To give you a better chance of hiding from the spammers, you can "mask" your email address when placing adverts or events on Daily Info.

If you "mask" your email address on our site, your email address will be hidden in your ad. In an advert, you will get an “Email me” link instead of your email address, and people will be able to respond to your ad by filling in an online form. For an event, if you choose to mask your email, you will be given a temporary forwarding address @events.dailyinfo.co.uk.

How do I reply to emails?

You'll receive responses as if you'd shared your email address publicly. Emails will turn up in your normal email account, just as usual, but you are at far less risk of receiving spam. NB Once you reply to the person who is interested in your ad, they will then be able to see your email address - from this point the conversation takes place via your normal email. If you are unhappy about the reply to your ad or the person who sent it do not reply, and tell us about the problem.

Anything else I can do?

To cut out spam altogether, we recommend you use only phone number for the purpose of advertising, or set up a new email address that you don't much care about. If your real email address is anywhere online, you will occasionally get spam of some kind! If you are setting up a temporary address for the purposes of advertising consider one which does not contain your full name.

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