Clear your inbox by creating a disposable email address

Providing an email address has become standard practice when it comes to signing up for services, making online purchases, and obtaining digital coupons or sweepstakes entries. As we become more dependent on these conveniences, our inboxes are filling up fast.

Of course, email service providers offer a variety of spam filters and protective measures. But when you willingly give out your real email address (REA), you’re essentially granting these entities permission to send you a variety of unwanted emails.

In comes disposable email addresses (DEAs). Unlike the popular choice to create a secondary email address for sign-ups or mandatory disclosures for exclusive offers, DEAs make it simple to receive the emails you want (and no more) straight to your primary inbox. There are a variety of options out there that provide this special service.

Spamgourmet

Spamgourmet is a free, non-commercial disposable email address service that prides itself on the fact that, with the exception of the initial confirmation email and password resets, they never send emails to their customers. It only seems logical that a spam protection service shouldn’t send you spam.

With Spamgourmet, you can create unique email addresses for each particular sign up or third-party and set a limit for the number of emails you want to receive before the email address you provided essentially self-destructs. Of course, should you decide you want to receive more emails at a particular address, you can refill your email capacity.

E4ward.com

Like Spamgourmet, E4ward allows you to create unique aliases for your real email address, but they also provide another added benefit. When you respond to an email sent to your E4ward disposable email address, a reply-to header is inserted, ensuring that your real email address is never revealed to the sender, a process referred to as “address rewriting.”

Additionally, E4ward offers the ability to create disposable email addresses under your own domain. The service is completely free and simple to use.

GishPuppy

GishPuppy, another free service, allows you to easily manage all of your email registrations conveniently in one location. Even better, if your primary email address changes, Gish Puppy has the functionality to quickly update your account to redirect your email addresses without updating each registration separately.

With GishPuppy, you’ll never forget the unique username you registered on a site with again. Simply click “Gish it!” on a sign-in page to access GishPuppy’s automatic lookup service and reveal the email address you used for that particular site.

Spamex

Spamex boasts that determining the root cause of spam is easier than ever utilizing the short message they include in the header or email body indicating the disposable email address that the spam was sent to. Not only does this service offer the same protection of the previously listed options, but you’ll now be able to hone in on those who have shared or sold your email address. Additionally, they offer the same “address rewriting” functionality offered by E4ward.

Spamex, however, is not a free service. While they offer a free one month trial, their annual plans range from about $10-$30 depending on the number of active disposable email addresses and maximum email size you need. Higher-tiered plans also allow for the use of your own personal domain.

Mailinator

Mailinator is a great option for those who don’t want to sign up for a service. Their free public plan includes the same traditional features with the exception of outgoing emails. It is a “receive-only” service.

It’s important to note that using the free “public” plan truly is public. All emails can be seen by anyone and are not owned by you. These public emails are deleted automatically after a few hours.

Those looking for a boost in features can upgrade to the team or enterprise plan to gain access to privacy, storage, use of a private domain and API access. When it comes to managing a high volume of inboxes all in one place, Mailinator’s team subscription is the way to go.

Jetable.org

At Jetable.org, you create disposable email addresses with a designated lifespan — handy for when you need to give out a one-time email address. During its limited lifespan, your disposable email address forwards mail to your actual email address. It deactivates automatically after the lifespan you selected comes to an end.

Jetable.org is unique in the sense that it provides a lifespan for your disposable email addresses (designated by you). This allows you to give out a one-time email address with ease. When the lifespan is reached, the email address automatically deactivates.

Jetable.org is not an anonymous service, does not offer the “address rewriting” feature and they do keep logs of the service for legal reasons. It is, however, free and easy to use.

Which one is best?

The service that is best for you will depend entirely on your own unique needs. If you’re looking for a free service with the greatest number of features, E4ward is a no-brainer. Or if you’re looking for a great way to manage a long list of registrations, GishPuppy is a clear choice.

When it comes to team plans, Mailinator is at the top of the list. With a wide selection of spam protection services to choose from, there’s sure to be a solution that best suits your particular requirements.

All Americans will get a text from President Trump

UPDATED Monday, September 17: The Trump administration has delayed the national wireless alert test until October 3. It was originally scheduled to go out Thursday, September 20 but FEMA announced it will be pushed back due to response efforts to Tropical Depression Florence.

Continue reading

Airlines attempt to bring passengers zen

Open/download audioThe long lines, uncomfortable seats, people coughing, the pushing, the shoving, and on occasion, rude airline employees. In this episode of Consumer Tech Update, Kim looks at how some airlines are trying new ways to help passengers relieve stress and tension while flying to their destination.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Free tool to diagnose and fix USB troubles

Most likely there’s been a time or two where you’ve nearly lost your mind trying to figure out what the problem was. You’ve probably spent way too much time troubleshooting when your device has stopped working correctly, or your version of Windows wouldn’t recognize the new device you were trying to use.

Continue reading

The most accurate weather information for your exact location

When it comes to weather, we trust our phones more than the guy on TV. Many apps are out there that provide weather information, but there’s a big problem with most of them. Traditional weather apps run forecasts by zip code or from national weather centers, which means they don’t cover where you’re actually standing. How often does your phone cheerfully say it’s a bright, sunny day while thunder is rocking the house?

Continue reading

Gig economy: Is it worth driving for Uber or Lyft?

Open/download audioNot long ago, driving for Uber or Lyft could bring in significant income but as time goes by, the income made by drivers has dropped significantly. In this episode of Consumer Tech Update, Kim analyzes the decrease in wages made by Uber and Lyft drivers and the increase in others as we look at the gig economy as a whole.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your frequent flyer miles are sold on the Dark Web

Open/download audioWe check our credit cards and bank statements to make sure everything is in order, but how often do you check your frequent flyer miles? On this episode of Consumer Tech Update, Kim exposes the big business of how hackers are selling stolen frequent flyer miles on the Dark Web.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are streaming services really cheaper than cable?

Open/download audioThere are many reasons people are cutting cable. It’s too expensive or it doesn’t have the programming we want. In this episode of Consumer Tech Update, Kim compares cable pricing and looks at whether streaming services are a better option.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump’s emergency alert text message

Open/download audioThe ways we communicate with each have changed and that means that in order to communicate with the public, government has to change their form of communication as well. In this episode of Consumer Tech Update, Kim talks about the upcoming test of the Wireless Emergency Alert System.  

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amazon gets a bad rap for its so-called employee "cages"

Open/download audioHave you heard about Amazon’s patented employee cages? The idea sounds outrageous but is there more to the story? In this episode of Consumer Tech Update, Kim looks at why Amazon has created this so-called cage and why they are getting a bad rap about it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Digitally preparing for Hurricane Florence

Open/download audioIf you are within 800 miles of the path of Hurricane Florence, you need to be ready on every level. In this episode of Consumer Tech Update, Kim runs down a list of websites and apps that will help anyone affected by this hurricane to get the information they need.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apple's 3 new iPhones revealed

Open/download audioSeptember 12 marks the day Apple fans have been waiting for as Apple introduces its new gadgets to the world. In this episode of Consumer Tech Update, Kim explores what we might expect to see from Apple as they unveil their three new iPhones and what updates they may have made.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why Apple is pulling out all the stops tomorrow

Open/download audioAfter some minor and often times disappointing updates to its products, Apple is set to unveil a whole bunch of new tech that should have fans lined up at stores everywhere this fall. In this episode of Consumer Tech Update, Kim takes a sneak peek at what we may see at the big Apple event tomorrow.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Facebook exodus

Open/download audioFacebook users are extremely unhappy. In this episode of Consumer Tech Update, Kim looks at recent poll numbers from Facebook users that reflect their increasing dissatisfaction with Facebook. With Facebook, there seems to be more going on than people realize.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What we know of Apple's three new iPhones coming in just over a week

Open/download audio

Every year, Apple hosts a highly-anticipated event where they unveil the newest iPhones, iPads, computer and more and put to rest all the rumors out there. In this episode of Consumer Tech Update, Kim talks about what we could be seeing from Apple at their big event on September 12, 2018.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The treasures that could be hiding in your attic

Open/download audioHave you ever gone treasure hunting… in your attic? It might be time to get out those old boxes of junk and take a look. In this episode of Consumer Tech Update, Kim looks at how a lot of valuable collectibles are mistaken for junk and hiding in attics everywhere.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Verizon, greed and why "throttling back" cell service is never necessary

Open/download audioIs there such a thing as using too much data? Verizon thought so. While California Fire Department was busy saving lives from raging wildfires, Verizon decided to throttle back on their data usage. On this episode of Consumer Tech Update, Kim gives her opinion on why Verizon really put restrictions on the fire department.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apple has a full slate of new gadgets this fall

For the last few years, fall has always been Apple’s biggest season. Of course, this is the time when the new iPhones are announced and the excitement during this time of year is understandable. But will the last quarter of the year be any different? Here are all the new and exciting gadgets we are expecting from Apple this fall.

Continue reading

Facebook is now scoring its users’ reputation

Open/download audioYou may know your credit score but do you know your trustworthiness score? On this episode of Consumer Tech Update, Kim looks at Facebook’s recently revealed user reputation score. What does it mean and will it actually work?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

6 mistakes that put you at risk for identity theft