Discover 10 easy ways to create a fake, anonymous, temporary, burner, or disposable email address on your phone or computer to protect your actual email address.
Your email address is a confidential and unique piece of information exclusively tied to you. It may be linked to your bank account, business, social media profiles, essential services, and various other accounts. For this reason, it’s recommended not to use your main email everywhere to enhance account privacy, reduce spam, and ensure only important emails reach your inbox.
Occasionally, you may be asked to enter an email address to download a free e-book, get a discount, sign up for a temporary service, and so on. In these situations, you can avoid giving out your main email address by using a fake email address. You’ll receive the OTP, confirmation link, free ebook, or whatever else on this burner email address, and then you can discard it, never to be bothered by that service’s unwanted emails again.
I’ve been using throwaway email addresses for over a decade to create VPN accounts, sign up for non-essential services, etc., and I’ll share my methods with you, along with some drawbacks. The first method works only on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, while the others can also be used on Android phones and Windows PCs.
1. iCloud+ Hide My Email
If you’ve subscribed to a paid iCloud+ or Apple One subscription, you get access to Apple’s Hide My Email service, which lets you create random email accounts that you can use when signing up for services. And when an email is sent to this random address, it’s automatically forwarded to your actual Apple ID email address. Down the line, you can even deactivate this email and stop using it altogether.
The most notable part about this method is that it generates an @icloud.com email address, which is far from a disposable email address. So, you can rest assured that the random address you generate using this method (unlike some methods mentioned below) will work for all apps, websites, and services!
Follow these steps on your iOS, iPadOS, or macOS device to create a random disposable iCloud email address.
On iPhone or iPad
- Open the Settings app and select your name from the top.
- Tap iCloud.
- Then, Hide My Email under the iCloud+ Features section.
- Tap + Create New Address.
- Touch and hold the email address and copy it. After that, give this email a label (name) and note so it’s easier to identify and tap Next.
This email address is copied to your clipboard. You can now use it anywhere you want. In the future, you’ll find it on the Hide My Email screen, where you can tap it and also deactivate it if you no longer need it.
On Mac
- Open System Settings and click your Apple Account name in the top left.
- Click iCloud, followed by Hide My Email.
- Click the plus button (+) to create a new email address.
2. iCloud or Gmail alias
You can create email aliases on iCloud or Gmail and use those instead of your primary email. We have dedicated tutorials covering these two topics.
3. Mailinator
I’ve been using this free service for several years. Simply visit mailinator.com, enter a random word in the top box, and hit GO. It will take you to a public inbox whose email address is TheWordYouEntered@mailinator.com. Give this email address when you’re signing up for services. You can enter this same word in the future to access this particular email inbox. Just remember that this is not a private inbox, and anybody can use the same word as you and access the emails there.
4. Gmailnator
The best thing about Gmailnator is that it gives you a @gmail.com or @googlemail.com email address that most services won’t be able to catch as a disposable temporary email. Just visit emailnator.com and click Go to access that email’s inbox. If the email account you get on the first try doesn’t end in Gmail or Google Mail, simply hit the Generate New button to create a new one.
5. Guerrilla Mail
Apart from being super reliable, as it’s one of the OG disposable email services, Guerrilla Mail also lets you send emails, while other services on this list are pretty much limited to just receiving. You simply visit its website at guerrillamail.com/inbox to receive a disposable email address that auto-refreshes every 10 seconds.
6. EmailOnDeck
Head over to the EmailOnDeck website, solve a simple captcha, and you’ll get a disposable email address. Use it when signing up for apps and services. Once you no longer need this email, click the trash icon to delete it. EmailOnDeck also offers Chrome and Firefox browser extensions to create disposable email addresses quickly.
7. TempMail
Similar to EmailOnDeck, temp-mail.org offers you a random anonymous email, and you don’t even need to solve a captcha.
8. Maildrop
This service also works like Mailinator. You just enter a random word on its website and hit View Mailbox to jump into a public inbox. The email address is the random word you typed, followed by @maildrop.cc.
Note: Don’t confuse it with the Mail Drop feature of the Apple Mail app.
9. SimpleLogin
SimpleLogin is an open-source service that lets you create email aliases. You can use those aliases while signing up for services, and all the emails sent to those addresses will be forwarded to your real email address. The company behind this is Proton, which is well known for its reputed Proton Mail and Proton VPN services.
10. Ten Minute Mail
Just visit 10minutemail.net, and you’ll get a random email address for ten minutes. However, in my tests, I found that emails sent to this address may not hit the 10 Minute Mail inbox. So use it as your last option.
Drawbacks of using a burner email address
- It may not work every time, as some services can detect you’re using a disposable email. But you’ll not face such problems using temporary/alias email addresses created from iCloud or Gmail.
- If you created an account using an auto-destructive, one-time use, temporary email address, then you’ll not be able to receive future emails like one to change your forgotten password.
- If you use a simple word in services like Mailinator, you must know that other people may also be using that same email address. For instance, apple@mailinator.com is a common email inbox, and many people may be logged in to it. So, you should try to use something unique like apple7893tim@mailinator.com.
Check if an email is disposable or non-disposable
You can go to QuickEmailVerification and enter the email address to check if it’s disposable or not. Note that email addresses or aliases from iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, and other such reputed services won’t be flagged as disposable.
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