Tired of all the junk in your inbox? Create a burner email address

June 14, 2023

By Kim Komando

Though texting someone is more convenient than opening your email app and composing a message, email carries a formality. It’s still the king of professional correspondence, especially in an office setting.

Do you CC or BCC? Knowing the difference and the proper time to use each is important. Tap or click here for a rundown on these email tools and avoid committing a digital faux pas.

Whenever you give out your email address, you open yourself to junk mail and more. Whether you’re signing up for a new account or emailing a company with a question, they can start flooding your inbox once they have your address. This is where a burner email comes in handy. Read on for more.

Does it ever stop?

Junk is one unfortunate constant when it comes to email. Whether you bought something from a retailer’s website, used a digital coupon, entered a contest, or signed up for a membership, it seems inevitable that your inbox will be inundated with spam.

Aside from marketing emails, you may also receive malicious messages containing malware and links that lead to fake websites. How about using a different email address to verify an account or sign up with a new app?

Burner email addresses are disposable and can be used instead of your primary ones. You can avoid countless spammy emails and ads this way. It sure beats going through your inbox, unsubscribing and marking messages as spam.

We gathered five services to help keep the clutter out of your inbox.

1. Temp Mail

Temp Mail provides you with a temporary, anonymous and disposable email address. You don’t need to register an account for the free version.

The service doesn’t automatically delete your temporary email address (that’s up to you), and you can’t send emails, but you get the benefits of a burner account. Emails are stored for about two hours before they’re automatically deleted.

Go to temp-mail.org to get your free burner email through your browser. You can also get Temp Mail for iOS and Android devices.

The Premium service costs $7.99 monthly and lets you have 10 addresses simultaneously, custom domains, full ownership of your inbox, extended storage, ad removal and more.

RELATED: How to unsend an email before it goes through

2. EmailOnDeck

EmailOnDeck is easy to set up with just two steps: Verify that you’re human, then get your burner email address. The service is free, and you can compose and receive messages. Incoming messages are stored for “most of the day.” EmailOnDeck regularly wipes mail logs, so keep an eye on your inbox if you’re expecting something important.

Upgrading to Pro requires cryptocurrency in the form of Bitcoin or Ethereum. You can try using CashApp to send Bitcoin if you have neither. The premium version of EmailOnDeck lets you send anonymous emails, create custom email addresses, save email addresses and remove ads.

Go to emailondeck.com to get started.

3. Guerilla Mail

Guerilla Mail provides a free disposable email address right in your browser. You can choose an address and compose messages. You can click a verification link in an email and then delete it. Guerilla Mail deletes spam messages before they reach your inbox.

It sits in quarantine when you get an email until you check your inbox. At this time, Guerilla Mail checks the quarantine and moves it to your inbox. Emails are deleted from both quarantine and the inbox after one hour.

Go to guerrillamail.com to choose your free burner email.

4. 10MinuteMail

10MinuteMail lets you keep a free private email address that you can use to send emails. The email and address are deleted in 10 minutes. If you need to verify an email address for an account, go to your 10MinuteMail inbox and click the link. You can also reply to the email if required.

If you have an important message, you can forward it to another email address. If you are waiting for an email that hasn’t arrived, click the Give me 10 More Minutes button to reset the countdown timer.

Go to 10minutemail.com to get your temporary email address. There’s no need to provide personal information.

5. Apple’s Hide My Email

Hide My Email for Apple users creates unique, random email addresses that forward your inbox. You can create as many addresses as you want and reply to messages.

You must sign up for iCloud+, which comes with an Apple One subscription. If you’re not a subscriber to this plan, you can subscribe to iCloud+ by itself.

• To create a new email address, go to Settings and tap your Apple ID.
• Go to iCloud > Hide My Email > Create New Address.
• Follow the onscreen instructions and you’ll get a new email address you can manage from iCloud settings.

You may also like: How to stop junk text messages and spam for good