[michaelt]

Back in the 1990s, a spammer who knew example.com existed would bulk e-mail a dictionary of prefixes - [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail] etc etc in the hopes that some would get through.

As such, a catch-all e-mail address was a sure way to get hundreds of copies of the same spam e-mail. And since most people who wanted a catch-all address were doing it as part of a strategy to get less spam, that was the opposite of what they were aiming for.

Perhaps spammers have stopped doing that since?

[rekoil]

I get that in theory this is possible, I'm saying I've never to my knowledge seen it, or I have but the Gmail spam filter caught it.

My domains are not really "out there" in any big way though, so perhaps I've just been lucky?