Since I don’t regularly use DisneyGiftCard.com, and haven’t been on the site since the previous site upgrade, I didn’t think twice about changing my password when I signed-in today. If it was there, I missed this fine print that I finally found in the FAQs:
To reset your password, click here to manage your Disney account. Remember, by changing your password, you will change it for all the Disney websites for which you have registered using this email address.
Save yourself the headache and don’t make the same mistake.
Because I am a weird IT guy, I use different email addresses for every account I create. So my various Disney site logins (GC, Hulu/Disney+, D23) don’t overlap and mess with my trip account login.
Nifty trick for Gmail users: you can use a + sign with your email username and add any text you want after it and the email will still go to your main acct. That way you get the ability for unlimited different email addresses, but don’t have to have logins for each.
Anything sent to any of these addresses will still go to john@ gmail.com
(I added spaces to those above just so the forum software didn’t think they were real email addresses and to avoid someone from clicking them mistakenly.)
If you ever have to REPLY to someone and have the From email match use that alternate address, you’ll also have to set up your gmail to use that email as an alternate “From:” address. Then you can select it when composing a message.
In the many years I’ve done this, I’ve only had to do so a small number of times when emailing a support site that required I prove I had access to the account email by replying to their ticket from it.
For reference is very easy - steps below. But I wouldn’t bother unless it comes up.
Once you hit next step above, it will open a code box and send you a code to your Gmail address. Grab that code and enter it in the box and hit OK and you’re done. After that you can click the drop down on any email you are composing and select which From: address you want to use.
Oh: One other hiccup: The Internetz RFC rules specifically state that the + sign is a legitimate character to use in in email addresses, but some sites do not play the game.
For example, Verizon sometimes will not let you use a + sign, depending on which page you are on when trying to use it.
Sometimes a site will not let you use a + sign in the email address when creating an account, but if you go back in afterwards you can change the email address to use one. Just have to play around.
Another Gmail hack is that you can insert anywhere from one to as many periods as you want throughout your email username and it also goes to your main account.
Over 20 years or so of doing this, there have been plenty of times when a web site was hacked, no notifications about it - I’d just start getting random email to, say flickr.jan2015@ mydomain.com.
Knowing I’ve never used that weirdo email address for anywhere else, I’d change that site’s password, change my email address to something different, then create a Gmail filter to just drop any messages to the old address.
MUCH better than just using my generic “john@” email at every site and knowing that every login depends on it so I can’t avoid the spam or phishing deluge.
Also, for more important logins like banking: makes it super easy to spot when you get a phishing email asking you to reset your Chase account and it arrives at the email address clubpenguin@ mydomain.com.
I think I’ve had to change my Linkedin email address the most by far. That site’s privacy for many years was terrible, then when they did lock things down better I am pretty sure they had a few unreported breaches.
