Monday, September 11, 2006
12 Sites That Help You Avoid Spam
byHave you ever been at a site that you never plan on visiting again and are asked for your email address in order to download a piece of software or a PDF you’re interested in? Even when sites have a privacy notice in place you never really know if you can trust that your email address isn’t going to show up on some partner’s email list so they can send you a “special offer for our interested customers.” One way to keep spam to a minimum is to maintain two addresses — easy to do with Gmail — but that can increase the time you spend sorting through your mail. What if you really need to use an address just one time.
There are plenty of sites that will create a temporary email address for you to use, I found twelve but wouldn’t be surprised if you could find another dozen. Each service provides a slightly different twist to the same idea of providing you an extra layer between your real email and potential spammers. Some require you to create an account while others just spit out a true single-use email, but the one thing they all have in common is their ease-of-use.
Sites like Spambox and MailExpirelet you decide how long you’d like to keep the address, anywhere from an hour to a full year. Others, like DodgeIt, let you create an account on the fly, no set up at all required. You just pick and for up to seven days you can check mail to that account, after that your mail is automatically deleted. Of course with no set up or account you may pick a word that somebody else has chosen, but as long as you’re not using it for personal correspondence that shouldn’t be a problem.
Registration free
Registration
Now don’t use these services on sites where you want to be contacted in the future. Signing up for that hot beta site invite with a temporary address wouldn’t be a good idea if you hope to get the invite in three months. Use your new spam-fighting power responsibly.
