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Anti-spam (email obfuscation in the Whois)

AKA “Why isn't my email address visible in the whois?”

Depending on how the whois of a domain is managed (whether it is provided by Gandi or the registry), it may or may not display an address.

In instances where the whois is provided by Gandi and does display an email address for a contact, your email address may be replaced by an obfuscated one.

This is because each handle at Gandi has a feature that allows us to display a temporary email address in the whois database instead of the contact's real email address. This is to keep those with nefarious intentions from getting a hold of your real email address, while still providing a way for you to be contacted.

The obfuscated email address looks like this: 

 ab3a1046d1b51f35a55862198a88013b-ar41@contact.gandi.net

Despite it ending in gandi.net it is not addressed to us.

This is simply a forwarding address. Emails sent to that address are automatically forwarded to the email address that you entered when you set up your account.

Ok, but why am I not receiving the emails? This is because you are either checking the wrong email address or your email provider or program is flagging these forwarded mails as spam, so you will want to check your spam folder (if this is the case, please mark them as “not spam”).

How to enable or disable anti-spam protection

If you have anti-spam protection activated, your email address will be obfuscated in the whois of any domains your handle is associated with. It will be replaced with a scrambled email address which will forward messages to your real email.

If you need to disable this feature so that your real email address appears in the whois listing, simply disable the anti-spam protection from your account's settings.

  1. While logged into your Gandi account, click on the “Account management” tab, then on the “Update account Information” subsection.
  2. Scroll down to the “Anti-spam system” option and make your selection:

anti-spam-system.jpg

The Whois listing should be updated within a few moments after submitting your changes.

Anti-spam protection is linked to handles, not domains. Therefore, when you enable this feature on your handle, your email will be obfuscated for that contact on all the domains that the contact is attached to (where the extension allows).

See also