Catch-all

In common use, a catchall or catch-all is a general term, or physical dumping group.

In the context of e-mail, a Catch-all usually refers to a mailbox on a domain that will "catch all" of the emails addressed to the domain that do not exist in the mail server. Configuring a catch-all address can help avoid losing emails due to misspelling. However many email hosts no longer permit catch-alls since many spammers abuse the feature, spamming random email addresses.

For example: if johndoe@example.com is configured to be the catch-all email address on example.com, then any email sent to an undefined @example.com email address will be forwarded to johndoe@example.com instead of being rejected as an Undeliverable message or Unknown User error.

References

• Mail: Setup A Catch-All Email
• Configuring the catch-all email address