Why is my email address being rejected by websites?
QI have my own domain name so my email address is first name@
surname.co.uk. Increasingly, I’m finding that when I enter this on a website it’s rejected as an invalid address. I’ve been using this domain for 25 years! Is there anything I can do to rectify this issue, because I am now having to use Gmail.
Charlie Wilkinson-smyth
AWe’ve changed your surname at your request, and for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, there’s not a single thing we, you or anyone else can do about websites rejecting a given domain name as invalid, because that decision is down to whoever designed the relevant websites.
It is a frustrating policy, as a ‘valid’ domain name could be virtually anything – including your real surname, which is perhaps slightly uncommon, but certainly not unique or in any way offensive.
Nonetheless, validation is beyond the control of anyone other than the webmaster.
It’s a sledgehammer approach to thwart spammers, which is such an enormous problem that some websites simply reject email addresses that don’t fit what they deem to be linked to ‘real’ domains.
One workaround is to have your Gmail account automatically forward all messages to your preferred email address. To do this, in Gmail, first click the settings cog followed by ‘See all settings’, then click the ‘Forwarding and POP/ IMAP’ tab.
Next, click the ‘Add a forwarding address’ button (see screenshot), type your charlie@wilkinson-smyth.co.uk email address and click Next, then confirm by clicking Proceed.
Gmail will send a verification email to your alternative address: just click the link contained within this message to enable the forwarding process.