Last updated: 27 July 2026
Catch-all email addresses
A catch-all email address receives messages sent to any address at your domain that does not already exist as a mailbox, forwarder, or alias.
For example, you could configure support@nuttyabouthosting.co.uk as the catch-all address. If someone then sends an email to bob@nuttyabouthosting.co.uk, and no mailbox or alias exists for Bob, the message would be delivered to support@nuttyabouthosting.co.uk instead of being rejected as undeliverable.
Catch-all email is supported on our new hosting platform and can be configured through your hosting control panel.
Important security consideration
Although catch-all email can help prevent messages being lost because of spelling mistakes, it can also attract a large amount of spam.
Spammers may use dictionary attacks, where they automatically send messages to many common or randomly generated addresses at a domain, such as accounts@, admin@, sales@, or combinations of names and letters. With a catch-all enabled, all of these messages will be accepted and delivered to the destination mailbox.
This can result in:
- Increased spam
- Mailboxes filling more quickly
- Additional mail filtering and processing
- Problems when large volumes of spam are forwarded to external email providers
- Potential damage to the sending reputation of the mail server
For this reason, we recommend creating specific email aliases for the addresses you expect to use wherever possible. There is no restriction on the number of aliases you can create, such as support@, sales@, or support.staff@.
A catch-all should only be enabled when required, and the receiving mailbox should be monitored regularly.