/ What is a disposable email address?

What is a disposable email address?

Celeste Stewart I love my disposable email address and highly recommend that you get one too. You know how Web sites are - they always want your e-mail address. Sometimes, I find a site and want to demo their software or read a few of their newsletters. Guess what? They want my e-mail address before they’ll let me go any further.

The problem with just giving them my e-mail address is that I don’t necessarily trust the Web site just yet. Will they bombard me with spam? Will they sell or share my e-mail address with others? Will I ever want to hear from them with special offers? All I want to do is see how their product works, not enter into an ongoing dialog with them.

I could sign up for a free web-based e-mail account and use that as a throwaway email address. In fact, I have done that. The problem is, some of these Web site signups require that I actually check the email in order to activate my membership or receive the messages. So, I must log in to the disposable account, check my e-mail and see a bunch of unwanted messages in my in-box. Not a big deal, but there’s a better way.

I use SpamGourmet. This service lets you sign up for a disposable e-mail address. You use this address by configuring the way you give it to others. For example, the disposable e-mail address is in the following format:

UniqueIdentifier.NumberOfEmailsYouWillAllow.Username@spamgourmet.com

For example, let’s say I want to sign up for XYZ’s newsletter and I have a username of “celeste.” I’m willing to receive a test run of five emails before I want XYZ to stop sending me e-mails. I would sign up for the newsletter using this disposable e-mail address:

XYZ.5.celeste@spamgourmet.com

The first five emails from XYZ would be forwarded to my regular e-mail address. If I enjoy these newsletters and want to continue to receive messages from this address, I can go my account at SpamGourmet and either increase the number or allow unlimited emails from this address. If I don’t want to receive any more than five, once the last e-mail arrives, any new ones are gobbled up by SpamGourmet and are never forwarded to me ever again.

I can make up e-mail addresses all day long as needed. Let’s say I want to receive news alerts from CWWNews but am not sure about their privacy policy. I’d create a disposable address using the same format, in this case: CWWNews.20.celeste@spamgourmet.com

Now, as messages begin arriving with this address in the “to” field, I can gauge whether CWWNews is sending them or if some other entity suddenly has the address. If I’m suddenly receiving offers from mortgage companies using this e-mail address, I can conclude that CWWNews has shared my e-mail address. By using a disposable email address, I can limit how compromised my address will become. These companies can share my disposable address with the entire world of spammers for all I care because I’ll never see their messages.