FAQ
From ContactClean
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What is it?
We offer a free and simple email finder system for anyone who changes their email address past, present or future.
We can keep your address book up to date and let people know you've moved, but only if you tell us to - we have some unique anti-spam features!
How Does it Work?
Once you've set up your account here in the ContactClean email address directory you'll be able to register all your old email addresses and the address you use now.
Over time individuals you've lost contact with will come to our site and search for your old address and, depending on your preferences, we'll tell them your current preferred address. In your User Preferences you'll be able to say whether you want to pass on your new preferred address by default. If not, then the searcher will be asked to register themselves and you'll be sent an email to let you know.
And if you change your email again in the future just let us know and we'll pass that on as well.
If you haven't registered yet then do so on the free registration page.
How do you confirm addresses?
When a user enters an address, an email is sent to that address containing a coded form of the address and a random number. Whoever receives the address is presented with two links to choose from: one will confirm that the reader is the true owner of the address and wants it added to the ContactClean.com system, the other will prevent the addition (i.e. the reader of the message is obviously the true owner of the address, but someone else has tried to add that address to the system either maliciously or in error).
This system works fine when the address is still in use. But consider the situation where an address is so old it's no longer accessible, or the ISP in question has stopped trading - this happens frequently enough to be worth thinking about. To help our users rediscover old contacts who may only have these very old addresses in their address book ContactClean.com keeps the requested address in a database. If there is no response to the confirmation message, either an accept or a decline, within three months then ContactClean.com will presume it's one of these very old, defunct, addresses and will activate it within the lookup system. The confirmation message will be sent out once every month within these three months.
The limit of three months has been picked as a compromise: any shorter and it may be possible to register the address of someone who is on holiday, any longer and it will feel like an eternity before your old address becomes activated.
Will my Emails be Forwarded Immediately?
If you change your email address ContactClean cannot yet forward your emails, this is something only your old email provider can do.
If your old email is being shut down then when someone sends a message to you that bounces they will have to come to ContactClean and look you up to find your new address.
If your old email provider doesn't support email forwarding then see if you can set a "vacation message" or "auto reply" of some kind. To avoid spammers tracking your new address it's best not to put your new address into this auto-reply. But you can use a ContactClean Quick Search link like this
http://www.ContactClean.com/demo_old_address@example.com
(use your own old address after the / )
How can I find someone's email address?
Use our free email search tool
How do I avoid SPAM?
“I've changed my address because I was getting too much junk at the old one. I don't want the junk to follow me!” At ContactClean.com we understand your problem (really, we do!!!) - so our database, and the results of the Lookup Page, will never be available to all and sundry.
Spammers gather their email lists by using automated programs (spiders) to crawl around the web to suck up email addresses like a vacuum cleaner. Our Lookup Page has been crafted to be invisible to 99.9% of junk-mail spiders, and the other 0.1% would have to put in so much effort to exploit the page it wouldn't be cost-effective for them.
And if that isn't enough there's a setting on your User Page (once you register) that allows you to vet all lookups of your old addresses - i.e. the searcher has to register, and confirm their address, and then you get to choose whether or not to say hello.
See also our privacy statement.
Why is the registration an opt-out system rather than a opt-in?
Normal registration is "double opt in". Ie. you have to enter you email address on this site and then confirm it by clicking a link sent to you. This is the safest and most privacy-secure method.
But we're also trying to support users of ISPs, and other email providers, who have closed down (e.g. Excite, Vizzavi, Beeb.net. Lycos etc.). Obviously such users can't confirm their email address, and therefore opt in, because their email doesn't work any more! See How do you confirm address for more details...
Other useful pages
* privacy statement * Contact us
