Disposable Email Addresses

(Edited on October 20, 2022 to reflect our new network and system)

Disposable email addresses are a great tool to have with the busy inboxes we all have.  This world uses a lot of email.  There were 281.1 billion emails sent and received in 2018 and the amount of emails sent and received in 2019 is predicted to go up 12 more billion!  That’s a lot of messages, a lot of newsletters, a lot of spam. (source:  statista)

Nearly every service or app you sign up for needs an email address to complete.  Email has become and will continue to be a truly important way to communicate, but it also can be the source of some frustration in the form of unwanted or excessive messages.

The advantages of email are numerous because it is so convenient to be able to access messages from your friends, family, colleagues, and clients at home, at work, and on the go.  If you have a private email account, it’s even better because you don’t have to worry about someone tracking you or scanning your messages. However, even with private email, the disadvantages can be daunting if you get targeted for spam.  Some spam is harmless but some spam can be devastating when they target you and try to trick you into sharing personal information or attach something that can harm your computer.

Best Email Practices for Spam:

  1. The first line of defense is using a good email provider with spam protection.  ILJ Mail has you covered.
  2. The second line of defense is to not give your main email address to everyone that wants it.

This is where having disposable email addresses can come in handy.

There are two different options for disposable email addresses.  The first option is to go out to a service that offers anonymous addresses and sign up for one there.  Those would be useful if you are going to send an email to your congressman and don’t want to be tracked.  Although, will they take you serious if they don’t know who you are?  Good question.  The second option is to use an adaptation of your own email address like offered at ILJ Mail.  ILJ Mail offers disposable email addresses at no extra cost with every account.

Cut back on spam:

Disposable email addresses are a great way to bring some control and privacy back to your inbox.

Let’s say you want to sign up for a particular newsletter about birds.  However, you don’t necessarily trust the website you are visiting to not send you unwanted emails.  You can set up a disposable email address such as yourname+birdnews@ilj.com and give them that email address.  It will be delivered to your inbox just like messages sent to your regular email address (yourname@ilj.com).   If they start sending you unwanted email, try to unsubscribe first.  If they don’t allow you to unsubscribe (as some have known to do), or sell your information to a third party, you can just filter all that comes to that email address into the trash while still getting email at your normal address. Then you can always use a new disposable email address to sign up for future newsletters you want to try.

Keep your inbox organized:

It’s also a great way to filter incoming emails and have them go right to folders to read later.  Every email client has their own filtering system but if you have a disposable email for “news” and one for “games” or “politics”, you can have your email client do something different with the emails that come to the different addresses.  Great way to organize and keep your inbox free for important messages.

If that sounds like something you would like, we invite you to take a look at what ILJ Mail has to offer.  We are firm believers in privacy and the fact that your email belongs to you.  We offer disposable email addresses at no extra cost! Check out how easy it is at this knowledge base article:  How to Use Disposable Email Addresses.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to us through our contact form.  We would love to hear from you!