phil ringnalda

Two ways to get disposable email addresses, for those times when you have to give an address to sign up for something, but you don’t quite trust them not to sell you to the spammers:

Spammotel generates random addresses (like AVMDKBOEJZVX@spammotel.com), and then forwards everything, with an optional custom prefix to the subject, until you tell it to stop. Messages are forwarded with a generated reply to: address, so that you can send replies back through Spammotel. You get a new address by either visiting the website, or running a (Windows-only) program.

Spamgourmet is a bit more complicated to learn, but then easier to use for truly nasty people or programs that want your address. You create your own addresses, including the number of messages you want to have forwarded (maximum of 20), and then once that number is used up, everything else is deleted, without you having to think about it. To sign up for something that will send a confirmation, and then a password, just set the number to two (foo.2.user@spamgourmet.com), get your two emails, and then forget about the address. Advanced mode lets you add trusted senders, who can send to any of your addresses even after the number of allowed messages runs out, and lets you change the number of allowed messages (when you forget your password, and need one more message at an address). However, you can’t reply from a Spamgourmet address, so you’ll still need to sign up with Spammotel for those times when the confirmation email requires you to reply, not just click a link.