Disposable addresses
| Anti-spam technique: Disposable addresses | |
|---|---|
| Date of first use: | 1990s |
| Effectiveness: | High |
| Popularity: | Medium |
| Difficulty of implementation: | Medium |
| Where implemented: | MTA |
| Harm: | Medium |
A disposable e-mail address is an address that can be disabled when spam arrives. Typically, a user has many disposable addresses, and distributes a different one to each correspondent. This makes a point-to-point communication channel with each contact. If one of the contacts exploits the e-mail address that s(he) was given for sending SPAM, that address is disabled, i.e. disposed of, by its owner. Other contacts are not affected by the cancellation of one address. They can still send e-mail to the user, using the different disposable e-mail addresses they previously received.
Disposable addresses are most commonly used in situations where a user needs to receive e-mails from unknown entities that are susceptible to turn bad (i.e. send SPAM in the future). For example, a user may prefer to reveal a disposable e-mail address rather than a real e-mail address, when filling web forms, sending e-mail to discussion forums to hide his/her address from spam bots, etc.
Using a disposable address is also a clean and easy way of terminating communication with unknown entities, when needed. Unlike many e-mail addresses that one can obtain from e-mail service providers e.g. Yahoo!, Gmail etc., one does not have to disable an account or tell the contact that e-mails to that address are no longer checked. Disposable e-mail addresses are easily canceled.
