Hot take: using a burner email for everything actually made my real inbox more dangerous

I started using a separate Gmail account for all my shopping and newsletter signups maybe 6 months ago. But last week I got a phishing email on my main account that mentioned a specific order from a site I only visited with the burner email. Turns out the burner email got compromised through a minor breach at a small retailer in Ohio, and the hackers linked it back to my main one through a shared recovery address. Has anyone else found that compartmentalizing your data just gives you a false sense of security while still leaving you exposed?

2 comments

2 Comments

julia_carter701mo agoTop Commenter

Made the same mistake myself. Thought I was being clever with a separate email for all my junk subscriptions, but then I used the same password for both accounts because who can remember all that. Got hit with a data breach notification from Have I Been Pwned last month and realized both emails were in the leak. Felt like I built a fancy lock on my front door but left the back door wide open with a sign on it saying "free stuff inside.

ben6621mo ago

Honestly, is using a password manager actually just swapping one lock for another bigger target?