✅ [Guide] Step by Step - Stop paying for Catchall emails - Create your own Catchall Email with minimal requirements (Gmail + Cloudflare)✅

hideath

Elite Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2019
Messages
6,620
Reaction score
7,350
This can be very useful for anyone creating multiple accounts in the same platforms,
You can use this for RankerX, GSA and similar tools,
Typically you'll need to pay for $10+ per month to use catchall domain from a subdomain with some services,
With this guide, you can use unlimited emails, subdomains and only pay for the domain ($0 to $15 at most per year),
And you'll have your very fresh clean and customized domain

You might want to take a quick look at the previous guide, it might be better and easier for some platforms:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/g...il-as-a-catchall-email-a-mini-script.1544498/
So, what you need for this:
  • Domain name: any domain can work, even Freenom domains could work in fact,
    I would stick with the common ones for better results as others might be spammy af, but you can always test with the couple of dollars domains
  • Gmail account: It should be verified with a phone number that you have, well' need that later, or you'll have to save the codes given by google
  • Cloudflare account: You don't even have to verify/create an email for this one
Let me break it down real quick if you know what you're doing:
  • Register the domain
  • Add the domain to Cloudflare
  • Use Cloudflare email routing and add a catchall email that forwards all emails to your Gmail
  • Enable IMAP, 2FA and use an App password with the Gmail IMAP Server
  • Use the emails with any variations you want while setting the Gmail server to check the emails
I won't be explaining how to register a domain and add it to CloudFlare, Google this, it's not that complicated,
So, after registering your domain, adding the proper CF NS and waiting for the NS to update, here's what to do

Setting the catchall on Cloudflare
  • Go to Emails, then Email Routing
    1700488783669.png
  • Click Get Started
  • Click in Skip Getting Started or simple add any random email
    1700488895717.png
  • Click on "Destination addresses"
    1700488952731.png
  • Then on "Add destination address"
    1700488992209.png
  • Add the gmail address and click "Save"
  • The click back to "Routing rules"
    1700489084484.png
  • Under the Catchall section, enable the Catchall email
    1700489122616.png
  • Click "Edit", then change the "Action" from "Drop" to "Send to an email"
    1700489203603.png
  • Under the "Destination" drop down menu, select the gmail address added earlier, then click "Save"
  • Now every email sent to any email within your domain "example.com" should be forwarded to your gmail address,
    For example "[email protected]" will be forwarded to "[email protected]"

Using Gmail with Software/Scripts

Now in order for the Gmail to work with your software/script, you need to enable IMAP, verify 2FA and create an App Password,
Here are the steps required for this (it's literally copied from the previous guide, i know :D ):

Enabling IMAP
  • Now to use this Gmail, you'll have to enable IMAP or POP, both work good, but i personally prefer IMAP,
    For that, first click the setting icon in the top right:
    1699690435271.png
  • Next, click on "See all settings"
    1699690469307.png
  • Go to "Forwarding and POP/IMAP"
    1699690515393.png
  • Click on "Enable IMAP"
    1699690558884.png
  • Leave the rest of options as they are, then click "Save changes"
Enabling 2FA
  • Now, in order for IMAP to work, we need to enable "2fa", that will require you a phone number or simply download backup codes,
    Go to https://myaccount.google.com/signinoptions/two-step-verification/enroll-welcome
  • Click "Get Started"
  • There will be only option to use a phone number, but while adding a new one, click on "Use another backup option"
    1699690979305.png
  • Make sure to download the codes if you don't have (or added) phone number
  • Next confirm with "I have my backup codes" or confirm your phone number
Generating an App Password
  • Now, we need to generate a new App Password, for that go to https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords
  • Name your app with whatever name you see suitable
    1699691406596.png
  • Then click on create
  • Your App password will show up, make sure to save it somewhere as you won't have access after clicking "Done"
Using Gmail IMAP
Now, in order to use the Gmail IMAP, you'll have to use the following settings:
  • IMAP Host: imap.gmail.com
  • IMAP Port: 993
  • Encryption: ON (SSL)
  • IMAP Username: your Gmail address, in our example it's [email protected]
  • IMAP Password: The App Password that you got earlier

How to get email variations for the catchall emails
  • You can use random characters and numbers if you're using some software/script that allows you to do so
  • Download a list of usernames and append the email at the end, you can easily do that by some text editor
  • Use Spintax form with different names/surnames and even number, i believe this is the default setting for rankerx
Let me know if you have any questions/suggestions about this,
Next guide I'll be showing how to use your own domain with your own mail server installed in your own VPS, no need for Gmail or CF
 
Looks great, I will let you know....also, can't wait for the next guide with my own mail server...cPanel setup would be fine :)

Thanks a lot!
 
Last edited:
Looks great, I will let you know....also, can't wait for the next guide with my own mail server...cPanel setup would be fine :)

Thanks a lot!
I was planning to use aapanel,
I'll add a section for the cpanel mail server setups, no worries ^^

Glad it helps!
 
Cloudflare setup is really easy, can be done even on mobile + imap login succeslufy checked / working on a new and verified gmail account.

All looks working fine, thanks again for this fast and easy guide!

Now. I am thinking how to use it on GSA SER projects properly. (I am a totally beginner)

If there is 1 gmail per 1 domain for catchall emails on Cloudflare, how many of them I need per project?
I mean considering thousands of email usernames on each domain...how many domains I need? (The same with gmail accounts, how many?)

Thanks for any tip, or advice :)
Cheers!
 
Cloudflare setup is really easy, can be done even on mobile + imap login succeslufy checked / working on a new and verified gmail account.

All looks working fine, thanks again for this fast and easy guide!

Now. I am thinking how to use it on GSA SER projects properly. (I am a totally beginner)

If there is 1 gmail per 1 domain for catchall emails on Cloudflare, how many of them I need per project?
I mean considering thousands of email usernames on each domain...how many domains I need? (The same with gmail accounts, how many?)

Thanks for any tip, or advice :)
Cheers!
Thanks, gald this helps ^^

Considering the way to use with GSA, i believe there's a setting for catchall emails,
You have to use the IMAP login details as listed before for the server login and any email within your domain for the used email,

You need a single Gmail account per domain for this to work,
And you can use unlimited emails for that single domain, examples: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], etc...

The thing is, the Gmail account won't be known by 3rd party services at all,
When you register (or use) the email at some platform, they will send you an email to whatever email you did put,
That email will be forwarded to Gmail, then you'll be using the IMAP service login to retrieve the email text, verification links, etc...

So, for any service/website, they will basically know the initial email "[email protected]",
and you'll be able to get the verification link for that specific email

You can also use different domains and that exact single Gmail account, that would work without any problems,
Not that good as a practice tho, just limit the usage of each domain to avoid getting it blacklisted
 
Thanks, gald this helps ^^

Considering the way to use with GSA, i believe there's a setting for catchall emails,
You have to use the IMAP login details as listed before for the server login and any email within your domain for the used email,

You need a single Gmail account per domain for this to work,
And you can use unlimited emails for that single domain, examples: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], etc...

The thing is, the Gmail account won't be known by 3rd party services at all,
When you register (or use) the email at some platform, they will send you an email to whatever email you did put,
That email will be forwarded to Gmail, then you'll be using the IMAP service login to retrieve the email text, verification links, etc...

So, for any service/website, they will basically know the initial email "[email protected]",
and you'll be able to get the verification link for that specific email

You can also use different domains and that exact single Gmail account, that would work without any problems,
Not that good as a practice tho, just limit the usage of each domain to avoid getting it blacklisted
Thanks a lot for your concern...all is clear, till that "limit of the usage to avoid getting it blacklisted” where I am a bit lost. But I will do some tests to see the results! I will start with 10 domains per project.

By the way, it looks like this Cloudflare + Gmail option for managing my own Captcha emails is even better (and also free) than having my own mail server installed in my own VPS?
Or what's the difference, please?
Thanks!
 
Thanks a lot for your concern...all is clear, till that "limit of the usage to avoid getting it blacklisted” where I am a bit lost. But I will do some tests to see the results! I will start with 10 domains per project.

By the way, it looks like this Cloudflare + Gmail option for managing my own Captcha emails is even better (and also free) than having my own mail server installed in my own VPS?
Or what's the difference, please?
Thanks!
there's no major difference as long as you don't go too hard for this,
for Gmail, the limits are 60 received emails per minute, so it's 86,400 per day, any more will get you blocked for 24 hours,
I don't believe there are any kind of limits for Cloudflare, not quiet sure about this tho
 
Why not use your domain login in the software instead of gmail since gmail have a restriction? That’s what I do.
there's no major difference as long as you don't go too hard for this,
for Gmail, the limits are 60 received emails per minute, so it's 86,400 per day, any more will get you blocked for 24 hours,
I don't believe there are any kind of limits for Cloudflare, not quiet sure about this tho
 
Why not use your domain login in the software instead of gmail since gmail have a restriction? That’s what I do.
you'll need a mail server for this ^^
I already stated that i'll be making a different guide for this one already,
Also Gmail and CF are free and way easier to use if you're going under 84k+ accounts/emails per day,
You can even use multiple Gmail accounts for that and easily scale up to 400k accounts per day with only 5 of them
 
Humm, maybe that's dumb, but doesn't Gmail read your mails? Isn't that a huge spammy footprint?

Any reasons why you wouldn't use another platform such as outlook instead?
 
Humm, maybe that's dumb, but doesn't Gmail read your mails? Isn't that a huge spammy footprint?

Any reasons why you wouldn't use another platform such as outlook instead?
  1. Even if Gmail will have bots to scrape your emails and use it for footprints,
    most of the emails won't contain any direct link to the links created, just the verification link
  2. Do you have an idea of the resources needed from Google to use such links for SEO footprints?
    It's not something they'll be able to implement in the near future, neither it will be worth their servers resources
  3. It's not even a common use, most people are using their own mail servers, some catchall mail service with their own mail server, etc...

And yes, you can use any other mail providers, or even setup a mail server that won't cost you anything if you already have a VPS,
But,
  1. There's absolutely no reason to use that for 99% of the cases
  2. I mentioned above if you read it well that I'll be making a guide to setup the mail server soon
Thanks for your interest ;)
 
i followed all steps !

i already had 130 domains on cloudflare

and i setted up all fowarding to Gmail.

i am making catchall for my Gmail

so what shouldi put in to my projects ?


child emails & gmail both ?
 
i followed all steps !

i already had 130 domains on cloudflare

and i setted up all fowarding to Gmail.

i am making catchall for my Gmail

so what shouldi put in to my projects ?


child emails & gmail both ?
You have to set the email sent to your catchall email domain example [email protected], [email protected], etc...
And use the Gmail POP to login and read the email(s)
 
1. i got many emails from cloudflare
2. i got all of them redirected to my [email protected]
3. i want to add them all into GSA SER
4. gsa wants imap or pop3 log-in for Cloudflare-emails.
Q. i cant find any imap or pop3 in Cloudflare emails
Q. how do i differenate cloudflare emails and Catchall email( G-mail) at gsa?

Sorry for asking a lot. thanks for your help.
 
Back
Top