Disposable Email

Nine of the best sites for disposable email, temporary email addresses that can be used anonymously one or more times and discarded, often as a way to avoid spam email (or send it). Know of another site that should be listed here? Leave your suggestion at the bottom of this page.

1. Emailias - Allows you to add a button to your Web browser toolbar that will automatically generate a cloaked “@emailias.com” address for you. Emailias forwards e-mails sent to the disposable e-mail address to your real email address until you tell Emailias to destroy the temporary address. (www.emailias.com)

2. Spaml - Offers disposable email addresses that can be used as many or as few times as you like. When you visit the site, it generates a unique e-mail address that is automatically saved to your computer’s clipboard. That email address can then be used elsewhere by pasting it in to forms, message boards, etc. When email is sent to the disposable address, you can pick it up online. (www.spaml.com)

3. The Disposable, Simple Email Address - November, 2006 blog post on 10 Minute Mail, a service that gives you a temporary, disposable email address to use when you want to sign up for message boards or other Web services that require an authenticated email but that aren’t important enough for you to risk the spam associated with giving out your real e-mail address. After ten minutes, your disposable email address is no longer valid, so spammers can no longer reach you. (tech.yahoo.com)

4. 10 Minute Mail - Gives you an email address that lasts for 10 minutes. You can use the anonymous email address wherever you want, and read and reply to emails that are sent to the address via the 10 Minute Mail site. After ten minutes, the temporary email address is gone. (10minutemail.com)

5. Spamgourmet - Service allows you to set up dummy email addresses, each of which you can customize to allow a certain number of replies to before the e-mail address is no longer usable. Replies to your disposable “@spamgourmet.com” are automatically forwarded to your real email address, so you don’t ever have to return to the Spam Gourmet site to retrieve e-mails. (www.spamgourmet.com)

6. ZoEmail - Email service affixes a temporary word or string of letters to your “@zoemail.com” address—this ensures that people who you’ve sent e-mail to can reply back, but that the e-mail address can not be captured and used by spammers. (www.zoemail.com)

7. Mailinator - Make up any “@mailinator.com” address and use that e-mail address anywhere you want spam protection. Retrieve any e-mails to that address by going to the Mailinator site. The e-mails you receive are not secure, and you can’t reply via Mailinator, but it gives you a disposable e-mail address that you make up yourself and use without ever having to create an account. (www.mailinator.com)

8. DotMsg - “Quick and Dirty Temporary Email Solution” Copies a temporary e-mail address “@dotmsg.com” on your computer clipboard that you can then use on any sites where an e-mail address is required. We could not make this work in the Firefox browser. (www.dotmsg.com)

9. Spam Motel - Lets you set disposable e-mail addresses and also make notes of where you used each disposable address to refer to in the future. (www.spammotel.com)