I *hate* registration pages, but every now and then giving out my email address seems unavoidable.
Many registration pages collect email addresses simply to sell them to spammers. Even pages that claim "your email address will not be used other than for purposes of ..." cannot always be trusted.
My preferrred hack is to create a new address (on a domain that I’ve set aside entirely for this purpose) that will identify the site on which I'm registering.
Let's say I wanted to register on an e-card site called "Coolcards". I'd create an address called coolcards@mydomain.com and have it forwarded to my real address. This way, if I receive spam via coolcards@mydomain.com, I know who’s sold me out.
I've discovered that a lot of purportedly reputable sites pass my details to spammers. I even received spam after registering on a well-known, A-list blogger's site!
I don't want to name names ... but drop me a line if you'd like me to tattle ;)
*****
I was curious, then, to learn of a new service called Mailinator -- a registration email hack that anyone can use.
Here's the skinny: you register on a site, like Coolcards.com, and when you get to the part that asks for your email address, you pick a username (any username) and add "@mailinator.com" to it.
Let’s say that, on the Coolcards.com registration page, I claim that my email address is heraghty@mailinator.com. After registering, I would go to Mailinator.com and check incoming email for heraghty@mailinator.com. The account would be created as soon as the incoming mail arrives ... but I’d have to be quick, as accounts only last for a few hours.
Mailinator accounts don’t have passwords, so theoretically anyone could check if there’s email for heraghty@mailinator.com. But it’s unlikely that anyone would, certainly not within a couple of hours of my registration. (Of course, I wouldn’t have to pick a name that’s meaningful. I could say that my address is 2e90eWEI5@mailinator.com.)
If you don't get it, rest assured that I didn't either, until I read over Mailinator's FAQ a couple of times. I haven't tried it out yet but it seems like a great idea ... until the registration sites get wind of it, and disallow Mailinator addresses!
So what's in it for the guys behind Mailinator? That, I'm not sure -- which is why I wouldn't advise using this service if the registration process is likely to involve any information you don't want to share, like a password, or your credit card details. The site's FAQ says that anyone who uses Mailinator to exchange sensitive information is "a stupid-head".
You have been warned!