Ever wish you could provide an alternate email address to a web site or company and protect your real email address? Learn how disposable email addresses or throw-away email addresses can help you.

Have you ever wanted to subscribe to a service or post a question on a web board, but hesitated because you weren't sure how your email address would be used? You worried that spam bots would pick up your email address, or worse the company would start sending countless unrelated promotions.

One simple way to combat these concerns is with a disposable email address (DEA). Disposable email addresses are best for situations where you don't need to correspond with the other party. You can use these addresses for newsletters, trade show registrations, and so on.

How Disposable Email Addresses Work

When you create a disposable address, you link it to a real email address. The DEA provider then forwards any email that is directed to your disposable address to your real email address. Most of these services will also tag the header so you can easily identify these emails in your Inbox. As example, the provider might add ***FWD*** to the subject line.

When to Use a Disposable Email Address

We often use disposable email addresses to stay informed of new product announcements. For example, we used a DEA with Kyocera, as we wanted to be alerted when new cell phones were introduced. However, we didn't want other correspondence from Kyocera or their marketing partners. If we start getting unrelated emails, we simply delete the disposable address or pause the address. (And for the record, Kyocera has never sent us unsolicited email.)

Many organizations can create disposable addresses for free or a small annual fee. One of our favorite services is Spam Motel. This free service also provides some nice tracking features and has a small applet that makes the address creation a snap.

Additional Information

Cost: Free
URL: www.spammotel.com

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