What is temp mail? Disposable email explained
Temp mail is a throwaway email inbox you get instantly, with no sign-up, that receives messages for a few minutes or hours and then disappears. It is also called disposable email or a burner address. People use it to dodge newsletters; bonus abusers use it to confirm one new account after another.
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How temp-mail services work
A temp-mail site owns a set of domains and accepts mail for every address on them. Open the page and you're shown a random address such as [email protected]; any message sent there appears on the page. There is no password and no owner. When the session ends, the inbox is gone.
Because the domain is the giveaway, sites started blocking known temp-mail domains. The services answered by adding new domains constantly, by rotating them, and by renting out spellings of real Gmail inboxes instead. That is why a domain list on its own is always a little out of date.
Legitimate and abusive use
Plenty of people use a burner address for a one-off download or a forum they'll never visit again. That's reasonable. A real-money gambling account is different: the operator needs to reach the player about withdrawals, limits and responsible-gambling messages, and a dead inbox makes that impossible. So most operators simply don't accept disposable addresses at registration.
How InlineShield treats temp mail
InlineShield checks each sign-up's domain against lists of known disposable domains. For domains on no list, it looks up the domain's mail servers (MX records) and matches them against the infrastructure that known disposable services use, so a brand-new domain on a familiar temp-mail backend is caught too. With the default rules a disposable address is blocked (verdict BLOCKED). It never sends a message to the address. More detail in disposable email detection, and a deeper look in how websites detect disposable emails.
Frequently asked questions
Is temp mail illegal?
Temp-mail services are widely and openly used; a site is simply free not to accept them.
Why do temp-mail domains keep changing?
Because sites block the old ones. A new domain costs a few dollars, so services keep adding them to stay ahead of blocklists.
How do I check an address now?
Use the free disposable email checker. It shows whether the domain is listed, matched through its mail servers, or neither.
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