15 Free Temporary Email Services to Avoid Inbox Spam

 

 Everywhere you go online, it seems that somebody is asking for your email address whether there’s a valid reason for it or not. This can range from newsgroups, mailing lists or discussion boards, to shopping or voucher sites or simply to download a piece of freeware. Everybody wants it because they know how valuable it can be. The problem is, every time you give out your email address, you run the risk of being bombarded with spam, even if you think you have opted out.  You might be able to unsubscribe from some of these messages, but sometimes it can take weeks to get off the mailing list, or more often than not the option just doesn’t work at all. But thankfully there’s a solution by using disposable or temporary email addresses.

The general idea is for the temporary email address to be created and remain active long enough for you to receive a reply from whoever the address was given to. Then you don’t have to use it again. If you’re trying to signup for message board or streaming/sharing logins, it’s also worth checking sites like ButMeNot or Share Your Pass to see if somebody has already shared one you can use. The downside is anyone can login to the address you create without a password, even another user who accidentally creates the same name. This means for privacy reasons you shouldn’t send anything personal or private through them.

Make sure you are not using common names like Raymond, and use more obscure ones such as Raymondcc2468cc where possible. A few sites do not offer you the choice of login name and they randomly generate a username for you, some others will offer password protection for the account which offers better privacy. Below are 15 websites that offer free temporary email services along with what each service has to offer. They are listed in no particular order.
1. Mailcatch

• Temporary emails removal time depends of server load (few hours to few days)
• Own choice of login name of 1 to 25 characters
• Available RSS feed for your inbox
• A Firefox add-on is available
• Can add time limited temporary email forwarding

2. MyTrashMail

• Emails removed after anywhere between 2 hours and 3 days. The smaller the email, the longer it stays on the system
• Your own choice of login name
• Able to send anonymous email
• Offers more secure inbox by password protecting the email address
• Email Forwarding to your real address available

3. Mailinator

• Emails removed after 5 days
• Holds only 10 emails at once in the inbox (no attachments allowed)
• Own choice of login name up to 25 characters
• Random name suggestions
• Available RSS and Atom feeds
• All emails are stripped of attachments (files/images), max size 120K
• Can be used in POP email client like Outlook, Windows Live Mail etc.
• Widget Maker to add a mailbox to your web page

4. SpamBog

• Random or user created username with a choice of domains
• Domains with (PW) can password protect the inbox
• Read emails are deleted after 7 days, unread after 30 days
• Mailbox has its own spam block list
• Able to forward and reply to received messages
• Attachments of 2MB accepted
• RSS Feed and ATOM Feed available
• Account/address remains open for 90 days after last mail check
• Sadly parts of the English web pages are still in German

5. Hide My Ass Anonymous Email

• Can choose your own user name
• Account is password protected for better security
• Expiration time of inbox: 24hrs, 1 week, 1 month, 5 months, 1 year
• Option to send new mail notifications to real email address
• Expiration can be altered in settings with option to also “Expire now”
• Other useful Hide My Ass functions include Free Web Proxy and File Upload

 6. Fake Mail Generator

• User or random generated address with 4 domains to choose from
• Temporary address deleted 24 hours after last check for email
• Messages permanently deleted after 24 hours
• Can keep email address active by checking for mail once a day
• Sister site to the Fake Name Generator which creates a complete fake identity

7. GuerrillaMail

• Unchecked mails held for 1 hour
• Checked mails held for another extra hour
• Beta mail sender can send mails up to 150MB
• Choice of random or custom login name
• Can create alias of address

 8. 10MinuteMail

• Generates random mail address for you
• Expires after 10 minutes
• Can click to extend for a further 10 minutes
• Can reply to emails
• 40+ languages

9. AirMail

• Randomly generated temporary email address, can be instantly changed
• Messages deleted 24 hours after you close the AirMail browser window/tab
• Multilingual with 10 languages available
• Inbox refreshed every 10 seconds, an alert will sound on new email

 10. Spambox

• Multilingual with 12 languages
• Address removed from 30 mins up to 1 year
• Needs real email address
• Incoming emails automatically forwarded to your real email

11. MyTempEmail

• Address expires in 30 minutes
• Can extend another 30 minutes
• Able to generate random or custom email address
• Can reply to received emails from temporary address
• Forward emails to your real address for 1 hour up to 4 weeks

12. TempEMail

• Own choice of login name
• Messages and temporary email address expire after 14 days

13. YopMail

• Random or user generated temporary email address
• Messages kept for 8 days
• Firefox, IE extensions and Opera widget available
• Setup alias for your inbox
• Can send emails to other YopMail addresses
• Optimized page for mobile devices available

14. Mailexpire

• Emails removed after selected period of 12 hours up to 3 months
• Generates random login name for you
• Email forwarded so requires a real email address
• Can create alias

15. Jetable

• Temporary email removed after user specified period of 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week or 1 month
• Generates random login name for you
• Needs authenticating via real email address
• Email Forwarding option

We hope this article is useful for everyone to avoid being put into spammer lists. Please use caution with temporary email services as most aren’t secure enough to send private information and should be used for more simple messages, such as getting a free giveaway key from a company like Ashampoo for example, to avoid the spam that comes with it.