Recommended Temporary Email Service?

Questions
61

I don’t think this is necessarily true, and I would be extremely careful if I was in anyone’s shoes. Losing access to your Proton account means losing accesses to many online accounts if you have aliases linked to them. Not to mention losing all your emails from Proton Mail.

Proton gets to interpret their rules however they want, to the point where they change the meaning of words like “bulk”. They can also reprimand you even if you have not broken any of their rules, which is what I believe happened to me.

A) I got warning despite technically not breaking their rule

Proton’s rule explicitly says the following:

you shouldn’t use email aliases for bulk signups on a third party website.

Even if I agreed with Proton’s nonsensical definition of “bulk”, which I don’t, I did no such thing.

I created 3 aliases for the same website within 2 hours. But I was not signing up to any service, I was simply updating my email address for accounts I’ve had for years. Signing up to a service and updating your email for existing accounts are not the same thing.

But Proton doesn’t care. For them, it might as well be.

B) Sometimes you cannot afford to wait.

If my current email provider is shutting down (e.g.: Skiff), and I have many online accounts linked to addresses from that provider, I cannot afford to wait to update my email for those accounts. This is just one example, and there are plenty of others.

In situations like these, I have to allocate the time to update my email for those accounts, and in that time block of sometime just a couple of hours, I need to create multiple aliases for the same website.

That is the context in which I got a warning.

C) Bulk means I should (technically) be allowed to have 100+ aliases for the same website.

Acquiring something in bulk means acquiring a lot of it in a very short instant.

If I buy 100 pairs of socks from the same shop in a single day, you can argue that I bought them in bulk.

But if I buy 3 pairs of socks in a week, however you slice it, I did NOT buy them in bulk.

Suppose I decide to buy 3 pairs of socks a week, and I buy each pair on different days, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

In a single week, I have acquired 3 pairs of socks. In a month, I will have 12 pairs of socks, and after a year, I will have 144 pairs of socks.

I now have 144 pairs of socks in my drawer.

Did I buy them in bulk?

The answer is no.

By that logic, if I create aliases at the same pace, I should be allowed to have 144 aliases for the same website, without breaking Proton’s ToS.

I am doubtful they would allow it, even if it technically didn’t infringe their ToS. This is something that could easily occur with Substack, as subscriptions quickly rack up.

D) PSAs could trigger a warning

Even if you pace when you create your aliases, a public service announcement (PSA) could trigger a warning. Suppose you have 3 Dropbox accounts that you create a month apart with aliases.

If six months after, Dropbox sends an email announcement about a new product they’re launching, you will receive 3 emails at the same time from the same website, to your 3 aliases.

That could trigger a warning from Proton. Companies make announcements all the time, so I personally don’t want to take that risk until Proton changes and/or clarifies their ToS. I already got a warning.

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62

There might be some truth to this, but it’s still a problem. ToS should be clear.

I couldn’t agree more. We are discussing this issue and putting this much effort into deducing Proton’s behavior because Proton’s ToS is not clear. To be clear, I’m not defending Proton. I’m one of the users who are usually censored on Proton’s subreddits due to calling them out. In the previous comment, I was trying to be as objective as possible by using all the information I have, including their official public documents, what their mods say, and what users report, to deduce how Proton behaves.

You have tried to register multiple times to ******** and this is against the terms of service of SimpleLogin. Please don’t do that anymore.

If you continue registering multiple accounts to a single service we will have to disable your account.

I forgot how this warning is worded, thanks for reminding me. Based on that, it’s clear that Proton’s behavior and statement are inconsistent.

They use the term “large”, which like “bulk” emphasizes a great order of magnitude. It suggests that having 2 or 3 aliases for the same website would be ok. And to get confirmation, I asked the owner of Addy, and he said it would be perfectly fine for me to have 3 to 4 aliases for any website.

It’s great to hear that Addy really does allow having multiple aliases for the same website!

I got the impression that Addy doesn’t allow that because they answered “No” directly to the “Can I use aliases to create multiple accounts on other websites and services?” question, and “multiple” means more than one. They probably should adjust this part to avoid such misunderstanding.

It’s only after I got his confirmation, that I signed up for a premium subscription.

I just want to confirm again, you tested it (signing up or updating multiple accounts on the same website using different Addy aliases) and there was no problem?

unless you ask them to double check and get confirmation from colleagues or superiors

Did the mentioned Proton support get back to you after getting confirmation from superiors and confirm the one alias per third party website rule? I only have had a few interactions with Proton support, but half of the interactions I had, they ignored my questions and just gave me “copy-and-paste” answers that didn’t actually answer my questions.

Sorry if there is any unclear wording, English is not my first language.

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D) PSAs could trigger a warning

Even if you pace when you create your aliases, a public service announcement (PSA) could trigger a warning. Suppose you have 3 Dropbox accounts that you create a month apart with aliases.

If six months after, Dropbox sends an email announcement about a new product they’re launching, you will receive 3 emails at the same time from the same website, to your 3 aliases.

That could trigger a warning from Proton. Companies make announcements all the time, so I personally don’t want to take that risk until Proton changes and clarifies thei their ToS. I already got a warning.

Is this something you have experienced first hand?

I’m aware that they scan SMTP headers (sender, recipient, subject) to detect abuse, so I’m just wondering whether the subject matters. Do only emails with keywords like ‘sign up’, ‘welcome’, ‘confirmation’, ‘registration,’ etc., in the subject trigger warnings, or will a warning be triggered as long as there are multiple emails from one sender to multiple recipients under one Proton account?

But I was not signing up to any service, I was simply updating my email address for accounts I’ve had for years.

I’m aware of this issue as well, really frustrating. The common explanation I heard from other users is Proton’s anti-abuse system cannot distinguish between an email address update confirmation email and a new account registration email, both types of email are treated equally and trigger the abuse detection.

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Yes, I have created multiple aliases for the same website with Addy and didn’t have any issues. That said, I have probably less than 20 Addy aliases in total (not for the same website).

Yes, they have. The Proton agents I have corrected verified the information with their colleagues and superiors, and admitted that I was right.

From my experience, it’s common for Proton Support to copy and paste their ToS. This is something I don’t mind, as long as it’s accompanied by commentary. If it has no commentary explaining, I will ask for clarifications.

I personally don’t like it when they tell me to just check their ToS, and are incapable of quoting me the specific part that applies to my question. That has happened to me before with Proton’s support team, but also other services.

Proton didn’t allow me to create multiple aliases for the same website, so no, I have not experienced this. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. Proton’s abuse trigger may not be promted with simulaneous emails from the same website if it happens a couple of times. But after a while, it could.

There’s a forum I belong to, on which I am subcribed to a dozen plus threads that have constant activity, every single day. I get notified via email every time there’s an update on those threads. Within a week I can easily receive 30 to 50 email notifications from a single thread. And remember I am subcribed to at least a dozen. I only have one account on that forum, but imagine if I had 3, and that I used a Proton Pass alias for each.

That means that I would get 100+ email notification on each alias at the same time, every week. That could easily ring Proton’s alarm.

I have no idea, and I’m sure we’ll never know because I’ve asked Proton, and they told me they couldn’t tell me because they don’t want people to game their system, which makes sense.

The context in which I asked how their system works is by asking how they could tell the different between aliases that are used just for emailing, and aliases that are used to manage accounts.

Because, as I’ve explained in my Substack post, you’re allowed to create 10 different aliases to email 10 different Gmail addresses (same domain). But you’re not allowed to create 10 aliases to manage 10 Google accounts (also same domain).

How can Proton tell the difference? I don’t know, but they can. I know because I have created multiple aliases to email Gmail addresses, and it didn’t trigger anything because it’s allowed. Those aliases are still active.

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65

Because, as I’ve explained in my Substack post, you’re allowed to create 10 different aliases to email 10 different Gmail addresses (same domain). But you’re not allowed to create 10 aliases to manage 10 Google accounts (also same domain).

How can Proton tell the difference? I don’t know, but they can. I know because I have created multiple aliases to email Gmail addresses, and it didn’t trigger anything because it’s allowed. Those aliases are still active.

Interesting discovery. Sorry to ask again but when you said “to email 10 different Gmail addresses”, it means you sent emails to 10 different Gmail addresses, but do you also receive emails from those 10 different Gmail addresses? Because I think it’s trivial for them to detect the difference between sending and receiving emails. And I believe it’s also trivial for them to store a list of “official addresses” of those services like Google and Facebook that are used to send email confirmation to users. I also believe they have enough data to build a filter/algorithm to detect that, since they operate a service that receive a huge amount of emails from third-party services everyday.

Proton didn’t allow me to create multiple aliases for the same website, so no, I have not experience this. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.

I see, I will test that with my throwaway SimpleLogin account when I have time. I will let you know the result. What you said makes sense, but I still think there are chances PSA emails won’t trigger an warning, because Proton can detect the difference, just like how you mentioned they can tell the difference in your 10 Gmail addresses case. The fact that there are people out there still maintain multiple aliases for the same website suggest that is a possibility. They must’ve also receive PSA emails from the same website during the time they have those aliases.

Thanks for replying!

66

Yes. If I create an alias to email someone, it’s because I expect a response.

One of the reasons I have found myself in this situation is because I’ve encountered quite a lot of businesses, including medical practices (yikes!), that don’t have their own domains and use Gmail addresses. I’m not going to email my doctor and my plumber with the same alias.

I agree. But when you sign up for a new service or update your email for an existing account, you receive a confirmation email. I believe it’s that confirmation that triggers Proton’s alarm. It’s one element of their trigger system. They just choose not to show you the confirmation email when they decide to strike you, and hence you are unable to create your account.

I wouldn’t put it past them to do that. Like I said, Proton wouldn’t explain to me how their system works, which I can understand. But even though there are parts we don’t know, I think it’s fair to assume that the confirmation emails are part of what triggers the alarm.

Also, it’s not uncommon for websites to change their newsletter / confirmation email addresses and domains. I know because I have experienced it multiple times. I use filters for many of my emails. I set rules so that if I receive an email from @facebook.com, it goes straight to my Facebook folder. But then one day, I see a Facebook email in my main inbox, which doesn’t make sense. That’s because it’s from a different domain @fb.com, which Facebook also owns.

All this is to say, I wouldn’t be surprised if Proton had a list of all the confirmation email domains and addresses from websites people use. I’m sure that’s not the only string to their bow, though. They could also check email titles to differentiate confirmation emails from regular emails.

I believe so, too.

68

I have just seen a post on reddit saying that their Addy account is being disabled for having 2 aliases: Please help! ‘Account disabled for breaking terms and conditions’
Just want to share it because I think you might be interested.

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Thank you for this very valuable info. I saw in the last comment that Addy responded. They asked OP to contact them via email, and it looks like they will have their account re-enabled. It seems to be a mistake, but it also appears that new accounts have stricter restrictions. I intend to ask Addy about this.

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70

Hey folks, jumping into this thread since I’ve been tinkering with temp email options lately for all sorts of sign-ups and tests without clogging my main inbox. I’ve tried a bunch of the ones mentioned—DuckDuckGo’s aliases are solid if you’re already in their ecosystem, and SimpleLogin works okay but yeah, that free limit hits quick. Anonaddy’s username flexibility is nice too, though I always forget I can’t reply for free.

Lately, though, I’ve been using Boomlify for most of my needs, and it’s handled things in a way that just fits better for what I do. It’s one of those temp mail services where you can whip up a disposable address on the spot for privacy or dodging spam, no account required to get started. What caught my eye is how you can pick a custom username instead of dealing with some random string, and it pulls from a bunch of domains that they keep fresh—I’ve seen new ones pop up when others get blacklisted. The emails stick around longer than your average 10-minute burner too, which is handy if a verification takes a day or so to land.

I mostly use it for quick website testing or grabbing trial accounts without committing my real email, and the cloud sync means I can check the same inbox from my phone or laptop without any hassle. There’s even a little built-in viewer for 2FA codes that pops them up right there, saving me from switching apps. If you’re into dev stuff, they’ve got an API that lets you pull emails straight into scripts or apps—docs are pretty straightforward with examples in a few languages, and you get some free credits daily to play around.

Anyway, it’s not perfect—still figuring out the forwarding quirks—but for infinite aliases without the short expiry nonsense, it’s been reliable in my book. Curious what others think if you’ve given it a spin.

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I recommend you give AliasVault a try. Its brand new, still in beta but developing fast by @lanedirt and is a solid option for what it does.

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