They work by giving you a random email address that is available for a short time (ex. 10min) and an inbox for any messages you recieve during that time (ex. an email verification message from a Lemmy server)
I didn’t want to recommend a specific one, however Googling “temporary email” should give you several options to choose from.
Just don’t ever forget your password to said Lemmy instance because you won’t be able to reset it.
Also be aware that sometimes the decision to reset the password is not done on your side. Sometimes due to attacks or similar website owners might decide a forced reset and that might require the email.
I had a scare when i went to setup 2fa, I guess i only copied the last digits of the link thinking all I needed were the numbers and then I couldnt sign in, luckily I still had an open tab with my account signed in and was able to redo the 2fa before being completely signed out, with no email on the account I would have had to start over
please don’t use a temp email (or non existent) for anything you might care about. also, make sure you never typo your email address.
example:
- someone uses a typo or fake email to create an account with some service.
- that service is later hacked and all emails found out
- hacker creates the email for real
- hacker just got your account
I’ve also seen people use temporary emails, forget the password or just need some sort of comms and then lose their account forever to the dustbin of time. These things happen.
Another option: Gmail supports the “+” operator. If your email address is: Alice@gmail.com
You can use an email like Alice+eBay@gmail.com
To sign up for eBay. Now you can filter all of the garbage sent to that address easily! Bonus, you get to see who’s selling your data which is always frustrating and entertaining.
There are also more permanent alias services including Firefox Relay, SimpleLogin, AnonAddy, and DuckDuckGo. You can turn off each alias that you no longer need afterward.
+1 for duckduckgo, it removes all the built in trackers too and is built into their android app. I really like it.
YSalsoK that many sites block these email addresses when trying to sign up. especially the bigger providers of such services.
https://simplelogin.io/ - they’re now owned by Protonmail, I think, and the service is still great. I have hundreds of alias e-mails with them on a custom domain and they’re as permanent as you want them to be. You can also use their domains to be more anonymous if you want.
I used https://temp-mail.org/ on Reddit quite a bit. Quick & no registration needed. Just keep in mind that you cannot restore your account that way.
but reddit doesnt require an email? I never used an email for all my accounts Id create a new account every few months
It does now last I checked, but didn’t use to.
