Throwaway Email Addresses For Everyone

from the becoming-more-popular dept

One popular anti-spam technique among certain folks is to use "throwaway" email addresses. It was probably first used by those who owned their own domains and could set up such email addresses. Buying something from Amazon? Setup an email address of amazon@mydomain.com. Then, if you discover others start spamming that address, you can just turn it off. Soon afterwards, services like Sneakemail came along to make this process easier for people. Now, it sounds like such throwaway email address are aiming to go mainstream, as a new company named ZoEmail is offering a web-based email system that works by letting you add custom "keys" to your email address. Those keys are required for anyone to email you. So, instead of just having myname@zoemail.com, you would use myname.amazon@zoemail.com. Anyone not sending an email to an address with a key will get a bounce. They're suggesting that you use this to set up unique keys for everyone that you email, though that becomes a bit of a hassle. It will be interesting to see how well this sort of solution catches on. While throwaway email addresses are useful in some cases, I'm not sure whether the average emailer is all that interested in the added complexity.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Steve, 5 Feb 2004 @ 5:56am

    Spamgourmet

    I've been using spamgourmet.com for 2 years now, and they've had the "key" feature in their addresses all along. Just for anyone's info. Spamgourmet is free!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    John S. Fetzik, 5 Feb 2004 @ 7:01am

    Similar Standard Unix Email Feature

    This is very similar to a pretty standard feature of almost all Unix email servers called 'plussed email adresses'. This feature lets you prepend an email address with any text, then plus sign followed by the real address and it will get sent to the real address. For example maybespam+bob@domain.com will go to bob@domain.com.
    I have been using this to great effect in sorting out mail and tracking down how spam gets to me for many years. I add the domain name to the email address when a site asks for an email address. So the email I would use here would be something like techdirt.com+jsfetzik@domain.com.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Kevin, 5 Feb 2004 @ 1:40pm

    No Subject Given

    Sneakemail has also been doing the same thing, and even calls them "keys". These press releases are moronic.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    dave, 5 Feb 2004 @ 3:13pm

    spaminator

    I find spaminator.com to work the best. What you do is pick... whatever@spaminator.com when you register, you go there and type in the username you used, and you can check your mail. within minutes the mailbox is deleted and that's that. No setup, No registration, Auto deletion.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    dave, 5 Feb 2004 @ 3:14pm

    correction

    oops, it's called Mailinator... http://www.mailinator.com/ sorry

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Marty Fried, 5 Feb 2004 @ 4:51pm

    Re: spaminator

    So, what happens when 2 people pick the same name close to the same time? Seems like a big hole.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    dave, 7 Feb 2004 @ 5:28pm

    Re: spaminator

    not quite a hole... the point isn't to use it as your permenant email address for receiving stuff. It's a onetime use email, if someone else happens to pick the same email as you, whatever. You shouldn't be using it for any sensetive information.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    sala abacha, 10 Feb 2004 @ 10:44am

    HELP MY FAMILY

    From the Desk of: MR.Salaudeen Abacha.
    Abacha Court, Victoria Garden City,
    kano -Nigeria.
    Dear Sir/Madam,
    I NEED YOUR HELP May the blessing of God be upon you and grant you the
    wisdom and sympathy to understand my situation and how much I need your
    help. Late Gen. Sanni Abacha, ex-military Head of State (Federal Republic of
    Nigeria) i was the last son who died of heart problem. Since the death of my
    father, I have been subjected to all sorts of harassment's, intimidation's
    and inhumane treatments, with negative reports emanating from the government
    and the press regarding my father past military regime and my eldest son
    Mohammed is being held. Most of our trusted Associates betrayed us because
    of Ministerial Jobs and appointments.
    I need your immediate help, I beg of you. I need your help to transfer what
    I call "our future hope" the sum of Forty one Million United State Dollars
    (US41, 000,000) from my late father private vault which he deposited into
    a security firm before his death. The last transfer of Ten Million United
    State Dollars (US$10,000,000) I made into a friend's foreign account in
    Europe, after the successful transfer, my friend denied me my money because
    of my restricted movement within Nigeria.
    That is the main point why I need your help. I lost so much trying to make
    transfer through some associates. This fund is considered as the main source
    of my family's future hope. When this US$41 Million dollars is transferred,
    my brother Okoh Bello who is also my close Confidant would be able to
    establish an investment with your assistance on our family behalf until I
    come out of my travail and torment.
    For your information, my communication and movement are under strict
    surveillance therefore make all your communications to me through my email
    address. This is to ensure maximum confidentiality and secrecy. If you help
    me receive this money into a foreign account, I will reward you with 25% of
    the total sum I will also compensate you for your inconveniences and 5% for
    expenses incurred. I am depending on this fund and I am counting on you for
    my future happiness and that of my family.
    I wait patiently for your response. Please include your contact details,
    telephone and fax
    Yours truly,
    Mr Salaudeen Abacha.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    sala abacha, 10 Feb 2004 @ 10:48am

    HELP MY FAMILY

    From the Desk of: MR.Salaudeen Abacha.
    Abacha Court, Victoria Garden City,
    kano -Nigeria.
    Dear Sir/Madam,
    I NEED YOUR HELP May the blessing of God be upon you and grant you the
    wisdom and sympathy to understand my situation and how much I need your
    help. Late Gen. Sanni Abacha, ex-military Head of State (Federal Republic of
    Nigeria) i was the last son who died of heart problem. Since the death of my
    father, I have been subjected to all sorts of harassment's, intimidation's
    and inhumane treatments, with negative reports emanating from the government
    and the press regarding my father past military regime and my eldest son
    Mohammed is being held. Most of our trusted Associates betrayed us because
    of Ministerial Jobs and appointments.
    I need your immediate help, I beg of you. I need your help to transfer what
    I call "our future hope" the sum of Forty one Million United State Dollars
    (US41, 000,000) from my late father private vault which he deposited into
    a security firm before his death. The last transfer of Ten Million United
    State Dollars (US$10,000,000) I made into a friend's foreign account in
    Europe, after the successful transfer, my friend denied me my money because
    of my restricted movement within Nigeria.
    That is the main point why I need your help. I lost so much trying to make
    transfer through some associates. This fund is considered as the main source
    of my family's future hope. When this US$41 Million dollars is transferred,
    my brother Okoh Bello who is also my close Confidant would be able to
    establish an investment with your assistance on our family behalf until I
    come out of my travail and torment.
    For your information, my communication and movement are under strict
    surveillance therefore make all your communications to me through my email
    address. This is to ensure maximum confidentiality and secrecy. If you help
    me receive this money into a foreign account, I will reward you with 25% of
    the total sum I will also compensate you for your inconveniences and 5% for
    expenses incurred. I am depending on this fund and I am counting on you for
    my future happiness and that of my family.
    I wait patiently for your response. Please include your contact details,
    telephone and fax
    Yours truly,
    Mr Salaudeen Abacha.
    PLEASE, REPLY WITH THIS EMAIL ADDRESS;salaudeenabacha@fsmail.net

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.