Disposable email address

Disposable email addressing (DEA) refers to an alternative way of sharing and managing email addressing. DEA aims to set up a new, unique email address for every contact or recipient. This makes a point-to-point connection between the sender and the recipient.

Subsequently, if anyone compromises the address or utilises it in connection with any email abuse, the address-owner can easily cancel (or "dispose" of it) without affecting any other contact. Following the cancellation or replacement of a disposable email address, the (ex-)owner need notify no more than one person/contact of the change.

By comparison, the traditional practice of giving the same email address to multiple recipients means that if that address subsequently changes, many legitimate recipients will need to receive notification of the change and to update their records — a potentially tedious process.

DEA, in essence, sets up a different, unique disposable email address for every sender/recipient combination, and its owner shares it only once.

Most likely, but not always, cancellation of a disposable email address takes place because someone starts to use the address in an illegitimate manner. This may occur through the accidental release of an email to a spam list, or because the original recipient unscrupulously and deliberately obtained it deceptively. Whatever the cause, DEA allows the address owner to take unilateral action by simply cancelling the address in question. Later, the owner can determine whether to update the recipient or not.

For the sake of convenience, disposable email addresses typically forward to one or more real email mailboxes where the owner receives and reads messages. The recipient of a disposable email address never needs to know the real email address of the user. If a database manages the DEA, it can also quickly identify the expected sender of each message by retrieving the recipient of each unique DEA. Used properly, DEA can also help identify which recipients handle email addresses in a careless or illegitimate manner. Moreover, it can serve as an effective tool for spotting counterfeit messages, or phishers.

DEA operates most usefully in situations where someone may sell or release an email address to spam lists or to other unscrupulous entities. The most common situations of this type involve online registrations for things such as discussion groups, bulletin boards, chat rooms, online shopping, and file download websites.

At a time when email spam has become an everyday nuisance, and when identity theft threatens, DEA can serve as a convenient tool for keeping network users safe and sane.

The plus addressing technique also allows someone to create a new, unique email address, although it is very limited compared to truly disposable email addresses.

External links

The most well known disposable email services are:

• DodgeIt
• SpamGourmet
• GreenSloth
• shortMail.net
• Mailinator

Many other disposable email services are listed at

• http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Abuse/Spam/Preventing/
• http://del.icio.us/tag/email+privacy

Some people discuss disposable email addresses at

• C2: Throwaway Email And Rid Yourself Of Spam