The catch-all setting decides what happens to email sent to an address on your domain that doesn't exist, such as a misspelt name.
| Option | What happens | Our advice |
|---|---|---|
| Fail | The email is rejected and the sender is told the address doesn't exist | Recommended |
| Blackhole | The email is deleted without telling the sender | Not recommended. Senders won't know their message wasn't delivered. |
| Forward to an address | The email is delivered to a mailbox you choose | Only if you need it. Catch-alls attract large amounts of spam. |
Spammers often send email to made-up addresses on a domain, such as a1@, sales2@ and test@. With a catch-all set to an address, all of it lands in your mailbox and uses your disk space.
If you're worried about missing email sent to a slightly wrong address, create forwarders for the common variations instead, such as enquiries@ and enquiry@. See Creating forwarders and autoresponders.