Say Hello to Goodbye Mails: Temporary Disposable Email Accounts for Creating Accounts

[blunix]

This blog post offers a comprehensive guide to setting up your own disposable email server using OpenSMTPD on an Ubuntu 24.04 server. Perfect for individuals looking to manage temporary email addresses for various service signups like Facebook, Instagram, and more, without the risk of being blacklisted like many public temp mail providers. The post breaks down the process into simple, easy-to-follow steps, ensuring even those with minimal Linux knowledge can establish a privacy-ensuring system at minimal cost. Whether you're looking to dodge spam or manage signups discreetly, this self-hosted solution provides all the tools you need to create and manage temporary emails effectively.


Ultimate Guide to Setting Up Disposable Email Addresses with OpenSMTPD on Ubuntu 24.04

 

[KGIII]

If I notice a temp email address trying to make it through the queue, I nuke it.

This wasn't a starting point, but rather a finishing point. They are invariably spammers.

I'm sure this isn't universal, but it has been here. They can sign up with a regular email account.

 

[blunix]

If I notice a temp email address trying to make it through the queue, I nuke it.

yes, of course, to fight spammers.

I'm sure this isn't universal, but it has been here. They can sign up with a regular email account.

I don't get this one. You mean spammers using burnmail accounts?

To be honest I'm a bit on a path to bury SMTP. Its broken in my opinion and we should stop fixing it. It should be replaced by something that has proper encryption to begin with. Half of the worlds SMTP servers out there don't even support proper TLS. The other half runs blacklists that you need to pay for to get delisted (totally contrary to how a RBL should operate).
Nobody (knows how to) use(s) gpg for end to end encryption. The GPG web of trust is largely considered broken.

We could just use Signal and Matrix..

I think paypal can now send you "SMS codes" for signup via whatsapp. I don't get why it has to be a service from meta / facebook () but its a start..

On my mailserver I reject mails from people that I have in matrix / signal with the message "use matrix / signal". Thats the best approach to email. Convert people to use something that has proper e2e, and then ban them from using email x)

For signup you need email accounts mostly, and I dont think forcing people to give out their real / common email addresses is required. I can signup for linux.org using a burnmail account (if I run the burnmail server and you don't ban me lol) and still be a normal member of the community.
Linux.org isn't a good example, but pretty much any website is.
Besides. Most websites send you TONS of spam after you signup. With this kinda approach that becomes irrelevant.

 

[KGIII]

I can signup for linux.org using a burnmail account (if I run the burnmail server and you don't ban me lol) and still be a normal member of the community.

You absolutely can, though you might attract attention. Just don't make your email a bunch of random letters and numbers and we won't notice unless you trigger some flags (which I'll avoid detailing).

If it's not from a single-use email address, it'll work.

I also nuke anyone with a weird domain name that has just a landing page. We get a few of those as well where there's a domain but it'll be 'this domain is for sale' or similar. Those get nuked when spotted. Then, there are the people trying to sign up with an email address that resolves to a gambling/beting site.

All things considered, we do a pretty good job at keeping the site free of overt spam.

There are two other people who deal with this and we do a fairly good job. You don't normally get to see any spam, even though there are many attempts to do so.

 

[bob466]

There types of things have been around for years...you only need to use DuckDuckGo.

 

[blunix]

Well my article is written specifically to avoid that. Although, other than setting up the mail system, which looks like its a full fledged mail system (has all the DNS records required to look like a normal mailserver), there is no website or similar.

I kinda thought about that but didn't want to go too far off-topic in the article.

If it's not from a single-use email address, it'll work.

You mean a single-use public provider like temp-mail.org yes? Those pretty much work nowhere, yes (hence I wrote this article).

I also nuke anyone with a weird domain name that has just a landing page

yeah my idea was to use some AI provider for creating websites really fast. But as said, that would have been to much for the article..

All things considered, we do a pretty good job at keeping the site free of overt spam.

That is CERTAINLY true. I think in my time here I saw one spam thread. But then again, if you spam a forum you do it fully automated to scan for forums that don't have administration at all. Otherwise it takes so much effort that you might as well, or actually have to, contribute something.

 

[Terminal Velocity]

I have set one out of my 15 free alias email addresses as disposable, it means I delete it frequently and set up a new one. The service called Simplelogin, owned by Proton based in Switzerland

 

[blunix]

Just looked at the website, in a nutshell thats the same thing just not self hosted I think.

 

[KGIII]

But then again, if you spam a forum you do it fully automated to scan for forums that don't have administration at all.

I don't want to be too descriptive but much of our system is automated. So, it takes a lot less manual action to deal with spam these days. We get a whole lot of people trying to spam the site. Fortunately, a bunch is weeded out with automation. We used to have to do quite a bit more 'work' to keep the site clear of spam.

 

[blunix]

Seems to work well

 

[f33dm3bits]

This sounds similar to Spam Gourmet.

spamgourmet

spamgourmet provides email addresses that get created automatically the first time they are used, forward messages, and then automatically expire.

www.spamgourmet.com