How to Stop Spam with Disposable Email Addresses

You've read it here, and you know it well: using your real, primary email address anywhere on the web puts it at risk of being picked up by spammers. And once an email address is in the hands of one spammer, your Inbox is sure to be filled with lots of not-so-delicious spam every day.

Stop Spam with Disposable Email Addresses

But what should you use instead of a real email address?

• Use disposable email addresses!

A disposable email address will forward all mail to your real address. So where exactly is the benefit? Won't it forward all the spam, too? Not if you dispose of it.

What To Do When You Get Spam

As soon as you get spam through a disposable address, you disable it, and all messages (and all spam) sent to the disposable address bounce back to the sender instead of your Inbox.

Since (and this is a crucial point) you give every disposable email address to precesely one web site or contact, you know exactly who spammed you or leaked the address to spammers.

For the same reason turning off a disposable address has no impact on all the other mail you receive through your real address and (preferably) other disposable email addresses. You merely stop the spam.

You can even use disposable email address to stop spam you get from posting your email address on your home page or blog in a mailto link.