We’ve all experienced the typical sign-up process that many websites put us through to let us access premium content, or just to use the services offered. They ask you for email confirmation and then blast your inbox nonstop with tons of undesired messages and SPAM. It is annoying and time-consuming to open your email on your computer or smartphone just to find yourself lost in a junk mail disaster. Disposable email accounts are the perfect way to reduce some of the heat caused by being an active internet user.
Irrelevant content and spam emails can take a lot of time to clear. But it doesn’t have to be like that. There should be something we can do to at least reduce the amount of spam that’s sent our way, right? What if I told you there’s is a dedicated community of websites that offer a simple solution for this and other spam problems, and most of them just require a couple of clicks?
Disposable email accounts. How do they work?
While they may have some minor differences between them, the main trick is to generate a disposable email address and keep it online for a fixed period, or at least long enough to perform a standard email verification process. Then, the temporary email account ceases to exist, and that’s it!
There are several ways to establish the account name; some sites will generate a login name automatically, while others will give you the chance to create it yourself. Whichever the case, make sure that your login name is not too common and uses lots of random numbers and letters, thus increasing your chances of successful email confirmations.
Advantages for users
Temporary email address services establish a unique and different email address for a given sender/recipient combination. This gives you an edge against those people that sell email lists to spammers and other dishonest internet users. They also work for online stores, cloud storage services, and other sites that require registration with email confirmation as a requisite, when you do not want to receive any more information from them in the future. Because spam and personal data theft both have become daily threats, disposable email services are a handy tool for defending yourself in the ever-changing internet environment.
Some providers let you manage your disposable email accounts from your real email´s dashboard. The plus side is that the websites that record your temporary email address will never find their way into your personal inbox. If used correctly, you can find out if a receptor uses your email information in a dishonest way before giving away your real data. Additionally, they are an excellent way to spot phishing attempts.
Getting started!
Here are a few of the temporary email services we’ve tested with good results. They all have different approaches and conditions so you can choose the one you feel that covers your specific needs.
- Mailinator – https://www.mailinator.com/
Here, your email will last five days. It can store ten messages at once (when the 11th arrives, the 1st will be deleted) and doesn’t support attachments. You can choose the name, and they give you some suggestions (we recommend picking one of those). You can use it from traditional email clients like Outlook.
- Mailcatch – www.mailcatch.com
The duration of your temporary email varies from few hours to few days depending on server use. It allows you to choose a login name of 1 to 25 characters long (remember never using common names). Includes a nice Firefox add-on.
- 10minutemail – https://www.10minutemail.com
A blazingly fast service, 10minute mail generates a random mail for you that will disappear after 10 minutes! You can click a special button to expand its lifetime for 10 more minutes if necessary. It allows you to reply to messages and has multilingual support (over 40 languages).
The above list is not meant to be comprehensive, and it is not sorted in a specific order. I also have to caution you that there are numerous sites offering this service on the internet but I strongly recommend you have excellent, up-to-date antivirus protection before you just go clicking on links from a google search.
CAUTION: Mytrashmail and GuerrillaMail are 2 such sites that have some sort of tracking or malware attack just waiting for the unsuspecting user to visit their respective websites. DO NOT go to these particular sites.
Disposable email accounts will not provide a spam free life for you but will at least act as an effective decoy against spammers or irrelevant content mailers.
