For ATT/Yahoo email users, especially those who are just starting, I have an email address strategy to suggest. Use "temporary email addresses" (formerly called Spam Guard) for most of your email uses.
Suppose your name is John Jacob Smith
1. For your "main" email address, it does not much matter what you use. I suggest that you not use your main email address for anything except for communicating with ATT and for possible sign-ins that only accept your main account credentials. Thus you might select JJS8522_admin@att.net. Set up your POP3 email program to check this email regularly in case ATT emails you.
2. I suggest you create a secondary email address for use with the "temporary" addresses you will use. Use this address for no other purpose. Thus it can also be anything, such as JJS_x_incoming@att.net. Set up your POP3 email program to check this email regularly.
Your temporary address root name cannot later be changed to be associated with any other email address. Once you have 50 temporaries going, you would hate to start getting spam to the underlying email address. Thus the suggestion of not using that underlying email address directly for receiving email. Your email program does use that address to log in to the POP3 server.
3a. Then create a temporary address root such as "JSmith1001". This should be short and easy for others to remember, but the problem is that all of the short addresses will have been used already. You will have to try many time to get one as best you can. This root will be used to form addresses such as JSmith1001-UPS@yahoo.com, JSmith1001-ebay@yahoo.com, JSmith1001-tax2@yahoo.com and so forth.
3b. To do create the address root ("base name"), log into the email account that you created in step using web mail. You can use https://login.yahoo.com/ or you can use another link that you have been provided for web mail. Once logged in, click
Mail -> -> Mail Options -> Disposable Addresses
You should then see a box labeled "Pick a base name".
4. To create individual addresses, click the same path, and click +Add Give these addresses to various people. If one gets spammed, you will only have to notify a limited number of people that your email address got changed.
One use for this is your Paypal email address. Some seller put you on a mailing list without your permission. You can change your Paypal address as needed. Usually you will keep the old and new addresses both active for a while.
5. Create at least one more secondary address to use for those times when you don't want to use a *.yahoo.com address or for those times you register for something and they will not accept a '-' as part of an email address. If this starts getting too much spam, you can delete it and create a different secondary later for such use.
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