What Is a Temporary Email Address?

Definition

A temporary email address is an anonymous disposable or short-lived email that expires after a set time. People use temp mail to sign up for websites, receive confirmation emails, or get downloadable content while avoiding spam and without giving their real email addresses. Unlike regular email addresses, temp mail doesn’t require users to register for an email service.

Example

Let’s say you want to download free eBooks but you do not want to receive spam emails. You use a service like temp-mail.org to create a disposable mail, such as yourname789@easipro.com. You receive the eBook and, after a few minutes or hours, depending on the service you are using, your disposable mail automatically disappears.

Types of temporary email addresses

Temporary mail addresses come in three types:

• Alias. This type of temp mail uses the same domain as your regular or main email address and serves as a forwarding address. For example, Yahoo lets users create a temporary mail address for free. You can use this to receive messages meant for your main inbox while effectively filtering out spam.
• Throwaway accounts. These are typically single-use email addresses. They are automatically deactivated after a certain period or once they’ve served their purpose. Unfortunately, for email marketers, sending messages to such accounts will always result in a hard bounce.
• Forwarding account. These forward your emails from one address to another. While these are created on a separate domain, you can still receive messages in your main or primary inbox.

How temporary email addresses affect deliverability

While disposable mail benefits consumers, it can adversely affect businesses that use email marketing campaigns to find new prospects, nurture existing customers, and generate revenue. For instance, if you end up sending emails to throwaway accounts, this increases your risk for high bounce rates and can damage your sender reputation. In general, temporary mail addresses alter your data and analytics. They prevent you from reaching prospects and can lead to lost opportunities.

To prevent disposable mail from affecting your business, you can monitor and disallow signups coming from known temp mail domains like temp-mail.org or IncognitoMail. Checking if an email address is valid can also help. You can use tools or services specializing in email validation to remove disposable addresses and keep your list clean.

Related terms

• Email Validation
• Email Scrubbing
• Bounce Rate

Related articles

• Email Scrubbing: How to Clean an Email List
• What Is Email Verification and How Does It Work?
• Best Free Email Checker to Verify Your Emails