how to hide files by extension, make apache/nginx send a 404?

[atesin]

hi.... in my home server, i invented a system that tracks ip addresses to avoid spam in html forms, ip's are written in include files hidden by nginx.. by extension

Quote

 location ~ \.(404|inc)$  {
     return 404;
}

• .inc = i use these with php include, the inclusion and execution works despite the extension, but i want to hide direct download/execution for security
• .dat = i use these files as little text databases/tables, for example to store csv-like data... i want to block direct viewing/downloading
• .404, .hidden, etc = generic hidden files

... how could this be achieved server wide, here in heliohost??  ... or are files starting with dot hidden by webserver at least?