My main email address received hundreds of spam emails per day. I hate it, but I’m never going to get rid of that address, so that’s just something I have to live with. However, I can start avoiding new spam by using throwaway email addresses and you can too. I tried a few throwaway email services recently, and decided that Tempinbox.com was my favorite. Here’s why.

1. I don’t have to register with the service.
2. I don’t have to set up an email account ahead of time.
3. I can make up an email address on the fly anytime.
4. An email account is set up automatically the first time it receives email.
5. I can either check the website for email or check an RSS feed instead
6. Using an RSS feed means that when something arrives in my throwaway inbox, I’m automatically notified via my feedreader, which is great for those of us who might forget to otherwise check.

So, when would you even use such a service? Well, let’s say you are submitting a website to a directory. Often, those directories will later spam the email address you’ve given them, or will sell your address to someone else who will spam it. Or maybe you want to download a free whitepaper or ebook or other gizmo, but they require your email address. Do you really trust them? Wouldn’t you rather give them a throwaway address? I’ve even had local stores ask me for an email address at the checkout counter. I may not mind receiving coupons and sales information from them, but I’m not particularly keen on getting them at my main email address.

Let’s consider one of those scenarios. Say I’m at Walmart and the salesperson asks for my email address. I’ll make one up on the fly, such as dazzlinwalmart (at tempinbox.com, obviously). When I return home, I’ll check that email address at tempinbox. It probably won’t have any email yet, but it will give me the RSS feed address to use for that one, which I will then add to my feedreader. If Walmart ever sends email to that address, my feedreader will let me know. And if that address gets spammed, I’ll also know exactly where it came from, because I used their company name in the address.

There’s lots of times you may not want someone to have your real email address. A throwaway address is a great solution to that problem. If for some reason TempInbox isn’t right for you, here are a few others I checked out recently, SpamGourmet, SneakEmail, MailEater, and DodgeIt.

Oh, and did you want to know what RSS feed reader I use? I love GreatNews, which is free. You can download it here. I also keep the most important feeds listed at Bloglines, just in case I’m out of town and need to access those from the web. But I depend upon GreatNews for my everyday feed-reading.

So, that’s it. Combine throwaway email addresses with RSS feeds and greatly reduce the email spam you receive.

(from Smash Mouth. "AllStar" Astro Lounge. Interscope Records, 1999.)

Posted on April 14th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Tech Advice