Not sure where else to ask

[frozenfestiveflo]

Will try and be brief -
have placed an ad - with my email address on a free-ad site. (Am desperate to rehome this item) - yesterday I received a question by email via the auto response system. I tried to reply BUT it was an aol address and mine is hotmail - it bounced numerous times. I then got a friend to email from their aol account - problem solved I hoped! Nope - it says it isn't a valid address - it's the address that is stated on the auto response form! I was really hoping this person was going to rehome my item and now can't contact him - any ideas please?

The bouncing was nothing to do with you being on hotmail and the other person being on AOL, it sounds like they got their email address wrong.

There's really not a lot that you can do about that, you could try editing the advert to add some comment about someone trying to contact you with a wrong email address and they might see it.

One thing to remember is that if it's a public web site and anyone can see your email address then it's pretty likely that it will get hoovered up by spammers and you'll attract a lot of spam emails.

Never enter your email address anywhere where it can be seen on the internet.

Two quick additions...

1. AOL is notorious for being zealous about bouncing valid mail but in this case it does seem to be an invalid mail address being tried.

2. spamgourmet.com may be useful when one needs to provide a mail address on any web form, as this (free) service can be used where some protection against spam is desirable.

spamgourmet.com isn't their only domain name ( dfgh.net is one of theirs, and not so 'obvious'). Idea is that unique mail addresses can be created whenever you need, and messages are forwarded to your 'real' mail address. I use site names in the making of unique addresses.

These mail addresses can be used to pass 'wanted' messages on but after a small number (20 maximum) of items, spamgourmet.com can 'swallow' anything more.

Address can then be made public - the wanted site can be 'whitelisted' so their messages always come through, while mail from other domains (eg spammers) will initially arrive but then be eaten. Helps whether the mail address is held in a website database (in case they get hacked) or if the mail address is visible on the web...