Why am I receiving emails for recipients who don't exist?

[scooke]

Just now I got an email to someone@mydomain.com. Now, mydomain.com is very small, just I use it, using Cloudron's built in email. How in the world would someone find this domain, to begin with. And secondly, why would someone use/send my domain when they don't have access?

The email was spam, so was some bot simply trawling for domains and then adding various names to it to make an email, hoping it gets to someone real?

Or, in another case, someone else signed up for some financial services, but used my domain??!! Why would they do that? So i'm getting their emails.

I've considered blocking them, or sending them to Junk, BUT, wouldn't this be hurting myself? If I say mail from my own domain, or to my own domain, is spam, won't my overall email deliverability get affected?

To be transparent, I did ask this over at lowendt*lk, and all I received (if you know the site, you'll understand) flack and nonsense responses. So, I'm hoping to get some clearer and more level-headed responses or ideas here.

Thank you!

[thpuffin]

@scooke Let's go through each question.

How in the world would someone find this domain, to begin with. And secondly, why would someone use/send my domain when they don't have access?

Email addresses are like addresses for physical mail; as long as you know what the address is, and the address is valid, the mail will be delivered.

The email was spam, so was some bot simply trawling for domains and then adding various names to it to make an email, hoping it gets to someone real?

Or, in another case, someone else signed up for some financial services, but used my domain??!! Why would they do that? So i'm getting their emails.

Depending on the content of the email, it can be either of the two cases you mentioned. Why would someone sign up for something using your domain? Maybe they thought of using yours as a "disposable email address" or they got blacklisted from using their own and had to use someone else's.

I've considered blocking them, or sending them to Junk, BUT, wouldn't this be hurting myself? If I say mail from my own domain, or to my own domain, is spam, won't my overall email deliverability get affected?

Overall email deliverability will be affected if you send spam, not receive it. So I don't think marking those emails sent to your domain will affect it.

[necrevistonnezr]

@scooke
I have the same issue, it just happens. Some stupid bot or just a spelling mistake.
I assume you have catch-all enabled in the e-mail settings for that domain? After you disable it, only your configured addresses receive mails.