Are there times when you would like to try some free service that is offered on the Internet but are reluctant to provide your email address because it might lead to spam? Don’t skip that free service – use a disposable email address. Here is how to get addresses that you can throw away. If spammers get hold of an address, just trash it. Or you can set up an address that expires before a spammer can even begin to use it.There are many free temporary email services available on the Internet. The details of their services vary somewhat. Some provide an address that lasts for a short time only. Others provide an alternate address that lasts until you decide to discard it. Some do not require you to register or provide your real address while others do require registration. Here are some of the best examples. Readers will probably know of others
Unrestricted Services
These disposable email services can be used right away, without registration or the revealing of one of your legit email addresses.- 10 Minute Mail - Create throwaway email addresses on the fly that last for ten minutes before they expire.
- 20 Minute Mail - This provider can create an instant disposable email address for you, or forward email to your own address after registration.
- Dead Address - Create a random email address and check its mailbox right on the site.
- Email Sensei -
- Email The - A free disposable email provider that you can use to get a temporary email address of your choice. Emails expire automatically after 24 hours, and the service allows you in that time to read and reply to emails.
- Guerrillamail - Creates temporary email addresses on the fly that get automatically deleted after a certain amount of time.
- Incognito Email - Create a random email address on the fly, supports RSS.
- Koszmail - Create temporary email addresses on the fly.
- Mailcatch - Select a random email alias that you want to use and check emails on the service's website. Supports email forwarding.
- Mailinator - A very popular service that supports features that many other disposable email services do not. It ships with hundreds of alternate domains, of which one is displayed on the main page. Interesting features include the ability to access mails via POP3 from an email client or email provider like Gmail, and to subscribe to RSS feeds for mail inboxes.
- Mailnesia - Another popular service that you can use to create an unlimited number of email aliases with. Emails can be deleted, and alternative domains are available.
- My Trash Mail - Create instantly available email addresses, or private accounts that only you have access to. Supports RSS feed and email forwarding.
- NoClickEmail - Creates a temporary email address automatically when you visit the page for the first time.
- Spam Spot - Displays all email addresses send to random spamspot email addresses on the frontpage which may have severe privacy implications.
- Spamavert - Create on the fly email addresses, and read them on the Spamavert website or in your RSS reader.
- Spamfree24 - Create on-the-fly email addresses. Emails are stored until the service runs out of space, at which point the oldest emails get deleted first to free up storage.
- Temp Email - You first need to create a temp email address, and then switch to the check page to check the inbox.
- Thrashmail.ws - Seems to use the same script that Email The uses.
- Yopmail - Free choice in creating a temporary email address. Yopmail makes available alternate domains that you can use to register on sites where yopmail.com email addresses are banned.
Email Address Required
These services require you to enter a working email address where all temporary emails are forwarded to.
- Easy Trash Mail - Create a temporary email address for a period of 15 minutes to 1 month, and have it redirect all emails to a real email account.
- Jetable - Create a temporary email address and forward all mail it receives to your original account.
- Mail Expire - Create an email alias with a lifespan of up to 3 months.
- Melt Mail - Enter your email address to forward a temporary email address that the provider creates for you for up to 24 hours.
- Spambox - Enter your email address and the desired life time of the temporary email (up to one year) to have mails forwarded in that time to your real email address.
- Tempomail - Emails created have a lifespan of up to one month.
- TrashMail.net - Supports SSL and requires you to enter your real email address. You can select between multiple domain names, the number of forwards and the life span of the temporary email. Paid plus service available.
Free Sign-up Services
It is necessary to create an account before any of the services in this group can be used. This usually involves adding at least one legit email address to the account.
- 33Mail - Create aliases on the fly which are then forwarded to your original email address. Limited to 10 Megabyte of monthly bandwidth.
- E4ward - Lets you redirect the temporary email address to your real one. Free guest account plan is limited to 50 Megabytes of monthly bandwidth.
- GishPuppy - Sign up to receive access to proxy email addresses that you can use to register on the Internet. Emails are then forwarded to the real email account.
- Inbox Alias - This is one of the few services that lets you send emails from your aliases. This may be handy if you need to reply to an email, for instance to subscribe to a newsletter or contact customer support.
- Mail Null - Once you have set up an account all mails send to the temporary email address will be forwarded to the real email address.
- Spamex - A paid service with all the bells and whistles one would expect.
- Spamgourmet - You need to create an account first, and associate an email address with it that you want to protect. Spamgourmet will then forward email addresses that it receives to the protected account based on parameters that users can specify on the fly.
Browser Extensions
Add-ons and extensions improve how you create and access disposable emails. Here is a small selection of extensions that you may find useful.
- Bloody Vikings for Firefox. Supports ten email providers that you can switch between easily.
- Spam Control for Firefox. Supports multiple different providers, including Spam Gourmet and Temporary Inbox, and full control over which addresses are used on the Internet.
- Many disposable email service providers have created add-ons for Firefox for their individual service. This includes Mail Catch, Tempomail or Email Sensei. A search on the official Mozilla Add-ons website will reveal additional service-specific add-ons.
- Chrome users find many service-specific extensions for their browser in the Chrome Web Store. To name a few: Trashmail, Guerrillamail or Yopmail
- Opera users finally find only a 10 Minutes Mail extension for their browser listed on the Opera Addons website.
Alternatives
Disposable email services are not the only options that you have to hide your email addresses when signing-up for services on the Internet. You can naturally create a second account at Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or other email providers to use that account for all registrations on the Internet. It is usually possible to either forward all messages to another inbox, or create filters so that only select messages are forwarded automatically.
