Stopping SPAM is clearly an enourmous task. However there are some sites out there that can help you do a reasonable job avoiding some of it. I say “help”, since there are many reasons that you and I receive SPAM that is simply outside of our control, even if we follow the best practices (i.e. Don’t post messages to USENET, Updated anti-virus, etc).
For example, say someone out there really likes this blog (remember, this is just a make believe example), and they put my email address in their MS Windows address book. And let’s just say that their internet hygiene leaves something to be desired. If they are then infested with even a single virus or spyware that harvests their address list, then Bam!, through no fault of my own, my INBOX can start filling up with Viagra messages.
Sometimes you just need a “throwaway” email address.
- mailinator.com
No signup necessary. Just pick anyname@mailinator.com, and just go to their website to view any incoming email. - dodgeit.com
Pretty much an identical service to mailinator, however they also have as an added feature an RSS feed, so that you can easily monitor any mail that does arrive. Which came first? It appears that mailinator.com was registered 4 months earlier (July 2003 vs November 2003, so I’ll assume that they were first). - spam.la
Wait… another service with pretty much identical features to mailinator and dodgeit. - spamgourmet.com
This one works a bit differently. With spamgourmet, you register your true email address with them, along with a spamgourmet username. You can then freely give out on the fly emails of the form someword.x.username@spamgourmet.com, where someword is the “on the fly” address, “x” is how many emails can be used by this addess before it stops forwarding emails, and username is the name you registered with. - spamhole.com
Two hour email. You sign up on their website with your actual email address, and the desired temporary spamhole email address. For the next two hours all email to the spamhole address will be forwarded to you. After that, all emails go into that great bit-bucket in the sky. - bumpymail.com
Similar to spamhole, except that they pick the temporary email address for you (my trial example was lwjm.3354@bumpymail.com, which I chose to last 2 days (Options 1-30) and 25 emails (their choice). - spamday.com
You can either have a 24 email address foo@spamday.com (they pick foo) that is either forwarded to your actual address, or viewable on their website. They also provide RSS links for you to monitor this account.
I don’t think that any one of these services do everything for you to help avoid SPAM, but here’s my breakdown of which to choose:
- You are at a conference, and a FOAF says that he/she has an interesting, yet shady sounding, business deal
Use mailinator.com, dodgeit.com, or spam.la, since there’s no signing up, and you don’t need to be in front of a computer. (Though honestly, unless this guy is a total dolt, mailinator has the only reasonable sounding address). - You are responding to a post on USENET
spamgourmet.com or bumpymail.com, depending on how timely a response you need. If any responses would be stale after 30+ days, either would be fine. If any response in the future would be helpful, go with spamgourmet.com. - You need a valid email to register with a site
spamhole.com or spamday.com (or better yet, BugMeNot) since you only need it to work for the immediate future.
I hope this helps.
- The Goose