Technofriends

Spam is a big industry these days and with it getting bigger day by day, ways to crack them down are also spreading fast.

Pretty interesting and one of them in this series are Disposable Email Addresses. Yes, you read it right;Disposable. When you sign up for something on the Web with a disposable email address, you don’t use your real email address but an alias of it. Every alias is created specifically for a site or mailing list, and the disposable email address becomes associated with it.

By default, all aliases of your real email address forward any mail to that real address, just as if you had used your primary email address in the first place.

But as soon as spam tickles in the difference shows. Since every disposable email address is given only to one site and associated with it, the source of spam can be identified easily. Taking proactive measures against any further spam from that site (or the spammers it sold the submitted address to) is just as easy. The alias guilty of delivering unsolicited email is disabled or even deleted. It will no long accept any messages, and no spam.

In this post, I  am listing some websites which provide this feature.

1.) Mailinator

 You don’t sign-up. You don’t have to tell Mailinator you’re coming. Think of something@mailinator.com (where something is really “anything at all”) whenever you need it. Give it out. Type it into webforms. Post it on billboards. After all that – THEN come here and check that mailbox. Mailinator does not assign you an email address and you don’t even need to come here before you use it. You choose – you can use any email you want (@mailinator.com of course) anytime you want. Give it out first, come here and check it second. It’s that easy.

2.) GishPuppy

GishPuppy is a free service that helps you manage all your online
registrations while still keeping your identity safe on the web.GishPuppy offers disposable email addresses that automatically forward messages to your normal (private) email. Conveniently create a different GishPuppy email everytime you register on the web, and individually cancel them whenever you want.

3.) 2Prong

2Prong is the only no-click disposable email system. By simply visiting this site the above address has already been saved to your clipboard. Paste(Ctrl-V) it in any form on a website that requires email verification and when the email is received it will pop up instantly in this box. 2Prong changes the domain weekly in order to prevent the address from being banned, a problem which plagues other disposable email services.

 

Reader Contribution

1.) Use Gmail Hack to identify spammers: An email sent to the email address  nitin@gmail.com or nitin+support@gmail.com ornitin+tryme@gmail.com would all be redirected to one address which isnitin@gmail.com. The gmail filter will ignore anything between “+” & “@” and you can use this feature to identify which site is publishing your id for spammers. While registering on any site say abc.com use gmail id likenitin+abc@gmail.com. If you get mails to this id you know who is the culprit. ( Thanks to Nitin).

2.) Spam.la : You can usespam.la email addresses for throw-away site registrations. ( Thanks to Prateek)

3.) LiteDrop.com : LiteDrop provides you with disposable e-mail addresses which expire after 60 Minutes. You can read and reply to e-mails that are sent to the temporary e-mail address within the given time frame. ( Thanks to Tim)

4.) Soodonims : Say goodbye to spam for good. Protect your inbox and receive only the mail you want – using unlimited disposable email addresses forwarded to your account. You can even Enable and disable particular senders from reaching you.

 

You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

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