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Sending an email without revealing your true identity helps protect your privacy, especially in cases like reporting crimes, sending fan mail, or expressing personal views without drawing unwanted attention. Here are some secure options that allow you to send an anonymous email.
Steps to Follow
Create an Anonymous Account
Find a Free Email Service. Google's Gmail is the most popular service, offering high security and user-friendliness. However, you can also opt for other services like Outlook, Yahoo!, or GMX.
- Some services, like Lycos, allow you to create a nickname for your email account, while Gmail does not.
- Zoho accounts come without advertisements.
- AOL and Mail.com let you choose your own domain for your email address.
- Hide My Ass is a disposable email service that doesn't require any personal information to register, and you can set an expiration date.
Click on the 'sign up' button (register). Most email services offer an option like 'sign up' or 'create a new account' on their main page. When you visit sites like Yahoo.com or Google.com, you will find a 'Mail' tab that you can click on to begin the process.
Choose a display name with no connection to yourself. Select a name that doesn’t have any link to your personal identity.
- Consider using traits like profession, location, hometown, or hobbies, but avoid any words tied to real-life features.
- Avoid including personal numbers such as birthdates, addresses, or postal codes. Don't combine them in your name.
- If you're struggling to create a name, try using a username generator like spinxo.com. Random words and numbers work better than personal identifiers.
Use a nickname instead of your real name. Don’t use your actual name when filling out registration forms. Think of a fictitious name instead.
- Avoid using family names, like your mother's maiden name, or anything tied to your past.
- Look around your room for inspiration and see if any objects spark an idea.
- Combine the first and last names of characters from stories or movies.
- You can also try services like fakenamegenerator.com or fake.name-generator.co for random name creation.
Complete the registration process. Agree to the terms and conditions. Be sure not to provide any personal details such as home addresses or phone numbers.
Type and send the email. Double-check the email to make sure it doesn’t contain any identifying information, like your real name, in the signature.
- Keep the subject line short to avoid having the recipient immediately send the email to spam.
- Ensure you are sending it to the correct email address.
Use Free Web Services
Research services that allow anonymous email sending. Numerous online services enable you to send anonymous emails without creating an email account. Be sure to choose a service that offers strong security.
- AnonEmail at Anonymouse.org separates messages from their source by forwarding them multiple times before reaching the recipient. However, this service doesn’t support attachments.
- 10 Minute Mail creates a one-time email account: after accessing the site, you have 10 minutes to send an anonymous email before the account expires.
- Silent Sender lets you send anonymous emails and track their delivery status.
- Ensure that the service you choose has a privacy policy and does not store user activity.
Add an extra layer of security with Tor. The Tor Browser Bundle is a downloadable tool that encrypts your internet connection and randomizes the websites you visit, making it harder to trace your activities.
Read the terms carefully. Most anonymous email services have a Terms of Use or FAQ section, which you should thoroughly review before sending any emails.
- These services usually remind users that they are not legally responsible for any emails sent.
- Even though you remain anonymous, your IP address may still be recorded in the email.
Provide the necessary information when prompted. Typically, you will only need to fill in the recipient’s email address, the subject line, and the body of the message.
Type and send the email. Once again, be sure to avoid revealing any clues about your identity at all.
Use a Remailer
A remailer is a service that accepts emails with instructions to forward them anonymously. There are several types of remailer services available:
- A nym (short for "pseudonym") remailer replaces your real email address with a traceable pseudonym and forwards the message to the recipient. The recipient can reply to the remailer.
- A cypherpunk remailer encrypts the email content and sends it to a remailer, where it is decrypted and forwarded to the recipient. This method keeps the content safe from surveillance.
- A Mixmaster remailer encrypts the email content before sending it and protects against traffic analysis.
- A Mixminion remailer also encrypts emails and allows recipients to reply, unlike Mixmaster, which only works one-way.
Understand the difference between traceable and untraceable remailers. Here are the pros and cons of each option:
- A traceable remailer keeps internal logs of the user's information and their real email address to forward replies from the recipient.
- An untraceable remailer doesn't store any user information and therefore doesn't allow for replies to the message.
Send the email to your chosen remailer service. The service you choose will provide instructions, typically including the following steps:
- Enter your email address into the remailer and set the subject line.
- On the first line of the content, type two colons ("::").
- On the second line, type "Anon-To:" followed by the recipient's email address.
- Leave one line blank, then type the content of your message.
- Send the email to the remailer.
Warning
- Tracking the IP address of an anonymous email is relatively simple. From the IP address, one can identify the sender's internet service provider, and in many cases, pinpoint the area where the sender is located. Most email services embed your IP address in the X-Message-Info field of the email, which cannot be altered. To avoid revealing your IP address, consider using a public computer or sending the email while connected to a VPN service.
- There are various reasons you might want to send an anonymous email. However, be cautious if you intend to engage in illegal activities, as law enforcement can trace any email, no matter how hard you try to conceal your identity. No email is completely untraceable; with proper authorization (and sometimes even without it), authorities can track down rule-breakers.
