How to Create Anonymous (Fake) Email to Protect Online Identity?

Imagine you had the power to write anything, yes, anything while protecting your identity.

From telling the truth about how crap your boss is, sending secret information, and yet, you don’t want people to know it was from you.

Simply put, the power of invisibility and the power of anonymity!

It seems hard and impossible, right?

Well, it is not.

Get On The Moving Train

Well, news flash! You could not be more wrong. Technology is as advanced as the time when impossibility was a word. Now, possibilities are the main trend.

Your identity is so precious, and you cannot afford to let it be trampled on. The rate at which people get dissed for something they sent, or, wrote, online is alarming. Some people get laid off from work, simply because they sent a mail to their boss. Others just spoke the truth.

In spite of the freedom of speech and freedom of opinion, blah blah. The fact is, most times, people will throw stones at you for your opinions.

Communicating through emails is gradually phasing out phone calls and others. For instance, some countries enacted the whistle-blower policy. They are giving money to whoever reveals an illegal operation or corruption, in ‘high places.’ It will be quite dangerous to send this kind of information with your details and identity in the open.

An anonymous mail makes it possible to stay hidden, a cloaked hero.

The Hard and Long Method

This method is classified as hard and long because it takes time and, it involves making a long way.

Firstly, this approach is about opening a fake mail with false details. As you will expect, it is anonymous, if done correctly. If not, your IP address can be traced back. It is also not as private or secure as you will think.

This step is cheap, but not a number one choice. The steps in creating an anonymous mail using this method are;

• Get a new phone number, which you will use to authenticate the account.
• Get a fake name and fake information. Try not to use the one everyone knows about.
• Open a new email account. (G-mail, Hotmail, Yahoo, anyone works)
• Use a different browser; the incognito mode is preferable.
• Send your mail.

As said earlier, this approach does not confer true and complete anonymity. If the person you sent the mail to has the resources, the mail can be traced back. There goes your superpower, with just a little kryptonite! In these scenarios, your kryptonite is too cheap.

The Simple and Short Method

Now, this is the real deal. When it comes to remaining truly anonymous, this approach is your best and safest bet.

This method involves the use of anonymous mail services. There a lot of them, some good, others great. The ideas behind these services include;

• Encryption
• Automatic deletion of mail from a server
• Blocked IP address
• Password Protection of your anonymous mail
• Minimal Personal Information
• Privacy! (Now, this is the main idea and logic)

Depending on the service provider, these apps come with different unique features, tools, and guides. All of which will be explained in detail, soon enough.

In addition to anonymous email service providers, you can also employ the use of a VPN. The virtual private network (VPN), was developed for this kind of stuff. The VPN keeps your IP address hidden, and your identity, safe.

How to use VPN will also be discussed in detail.

Why the Anonymity?

Who can be anonymous online?

Anybody can choose to hide/ protect their identity. Most people send anonymous emails for different reasons. For journalists and their sources, the need for anonymity is not far-fetched. A cyber-criminal can also use anonymous mail to perpetuate his dubious acts.

In essence, different people, from various works of life, can use anonymous mail.

Other uses are;

• Reporting a crime, or, fraud
• Reporting your boss to their bosses
• Telling on a co-worker
• Professing your feelings
• Sending Secret and Private information
• Telling the truth in a difficult situation
• Any other thing you can think of

Note, sending anonymous emails are different than encrypted emails.

How to Disappear

There are many anonymous email service providers. Listed below are some very good ones.

Proton Mail

Proton Mail employs end-to-end encryption software. Making your emails entirely inaccessible for third parties.

They do not require your personal information to create secure and anonymous mail for you. Also, they do not keep IP logs, so, no tracing the mail back to you.

The good thing about ProtonMail is that its code is open source and available to all. It is completely free.

How to use ProtonMail

• Log on to ProtonMail
• Choose the account type you want. While ProtonMail is free, they also have priced options.
• Create your account
• Complete your account setup
• Upgrade your account, if you want.
• Enjoy the great features.

Mailfence

With Mailfence, you enjoy great security features. There is no spam, no tracking, plus it is free from the government’s watchful eyes. They also offer an OpenPGP keys feature. Allowing you to create, import, publish, and manage these keys.

How to use Mailfence

• Log on to Mailfence
• Select a plan. Each plan has a great feature.
• Fill the application
• Follow the instructions
• Start using and enjoying their service.

Cyber Atlantis

This is a free anonymous mail service provider. You do not need to register on the site. Just the recipient mail address.  Also, the subject of the mail, the PGP public key, and your message.

However, the recipient can block fire emails from being sent to their mail address.

Cyber Atlantis allows you to send anonymous emails, as long as it is not abusive or illegal.

PrivateMail

PrivateMail free plan offers a monthly 100MB storage with a VPN service. They also use encryption software to help keep your data private and secure.

They are providing beautiful features to satisfy any email power. Also, your information is not required to register with them.

So you are 100 percent anonymous.

Anonymous Email

Send emails without registration through Anonymous Email.

The free version includes their brand name in the emails. However, you have an option to remove that by subscribing the premium plan. The paid plan also lets you enter from the name, from email and email notification on delivery.

Ptorx

Are you worried about using your real email address while sending a message to someone?

Worry no more!

Use Ptorx and keep sending and receiving emails anonymously. 

It lets you create unique aliases for your email, which is linked directly to your actual mails. Ptorx is available free on all platforms, including Android, iPad or iPhone, web, and Chrome and Firefox extensions.

In case a website you use gets compromised, then delete, disable, or regenerate your alias linked to that site to avoid security breaches.  

How to use Ptorx:

• Create a site-specific or a contact alias through Ptorx
• Whatever mail is sent to this alias gets forwarded to the inbox of your preference.
• Reply to this mail, and it will have the sender name as your alias.

You can also use your domain as many you want. Just configure DNS records and then create aliases along with forwarding mail addresses for your domain. 

Use Ptorx for free for a maximum of 200 credits/month.

AnonAddy

Create unlimited aliases and remain invisible using AnonAddy.

You can generate aliases with simple clicks directly from the browser through its extension available for Chrome, Firefox, and other chromium-based browsers like Vivaldi and Brave. Bring your OpenPGP or GPG public keys, plus add them to each recipient.

Toggle encryption on/off easily. If you turn it on, all the forwarded message gets encrypted through the public key, and only you could decrypt them with the corresponding key. It’s a great feature if you use Outlook or Gmail and never want inbox snooping, which is obvious!

AnonAddy lets you add your custom domains and use it as your subdomain alias. You can even enable/disable the functionality – ‘Catch-all’ for your domains. This way, you can manage the aliases or delete/deactivate any of them if you find it catching spam. 

If you don’t like your aliases having your username, you can create unique ones from the dashboard. It prevents people from linking the alias with you, which might blow your anonymity.

AnonAddy also lets you add multiple recipients on each alias. To help you manage your domains, aliases, usernames, and recipients, use AnonAddy API by generating an access token from the account settings. 

The pricing plans of AnonAddy start from a free plan that gives you unlimited aliases, 20 aliases for a shared domain, 2 recipients, and 10 MB bandwidth. Upgrade it by paying just $1 or $3 to get so many extended benefits. 

SimpleLogin

Safeguard your privacy and protect your email address against phishing and spams using email aliases by SimpleLogin, instead of your real email address. It lets you generate aliases on the go that you can use to create an online account or sign-up for newsletters.

In case you start receiving too many spams, you can block the alias immediately at any time. Even businesses are also using email aliases these days to remain safe from attacks. SimpleLogin is an advanced solution and is 100% open-source.

You can use it on your Android or iOS devices or use their Safari, Firefox, or Chrome extensions. SimpleLogin lets you use your custom domain, which eliminates the need to buy another email hosting.

You get catch-all aliases and create a username directory to use it quickly. In case you use various mailboxes, you can easily add them to SimpleLogin. This way, you can choose which mailbox to use while creating your alias. 

For privacy, SimpleLogin lets you leverage technologies like PGP and OpenPGP so that you can encrypt your emails. Secure your account using 2FA with WebAuthn or TOTP.

The free plan lets you generate 15 aliases, 1 mailbox, unlimited bandwidth, etc. Its paid plan starts at $15 for the 1st year and then $30/year for unlimited aliases, custom domains, and mailboxes, along with 50 usernames. 

Guerrilla Mail

An open-source project, Guerrilla Mail gives you an anonymous email inbox that deletes its contents every hour. You can use this free email service without providing an ounce of personally identifiable information.

Interestingly, an email ID once created, lasts forever. And you can check the inbox anytime for the last 60-minute deliveries.

Guerrilla Mail also gives you a muddled version of your email ID to keep the original ID a secret, as anyone can check the associated inbox with just the ID.

For instance, for an email ID google, the scrambled version was qe8cwg 3rmnbtilk. You can also click Forget Me to delete the associated account.

In addition, there are multiple domains (@domain.com) to pick from.

Finally, this is an excellent anonymous email service for the internet signups needing emails or to send whistleblowing emails.

Tutanota

Tutanota is a made-in-Germany solution for an anonymous email service. This is more like a conventional mailbox having a limited-powered free tier for personal use and paid-only business accounts.

Tutanota emails are end-to-end encrypted. Even there is no way to restore an account with a lost password.

There are open-source, native applications for Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, and Mac. Besides, one can also use Tutanota with any browser using its web interface.

This mail service also permits sending password-protected mail to recipients on mail channels like Gmail.

Its paid plans start with as little as 1 euro a month and offer multiple calendars, aliases, use of a custom domain, etc.

StartMail

StartMail is a premium, end-to-end encrypted email service assuring anonymity. All plans come with unlimited aliases, no advertising and tracking, and the ability to send password-enabled emails to external mailboxes.

One can access StartMail on most modern web browsers or with the email clients like Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple mail, etc.

This mail service supports using a custom domain, paying with Bitcoin, and has private spam filters. Besides, it hides your IP address while sending and receiving mail as an added anti-tracking measure.

Additionally, you’ll be shown full addresses for all external links to protect against phishing. Finally, StartMail is not hosting its servers on any third-party cloud but self-hosting to ensure maximum privacy for its users.

Mailnesia

Mailnesia is a receive-only anonymous email service you can use without any registration or password.

Besides, it has the optional feature to auto-visit the account verification emails containing keywords like confirm, verify, etc.

Mailnesia also supports settings alias, which is particularly helpful in keeping the original mailbox private since it can be accessed with the name itself (no passwords, remember!). And to keep the inbox secure, one can’t access it via an alias.

However, like most such services, your emails won’t sit forever in your inbox. Mailnesia clears them based on the incoming rate, which you can check on their statistics page. (As of this writing, it was eight days.)

Notably, it rejects all mails over 500Kb.

Lastly, Mailnesia has its source code hosted on GitHub for the utmost transparency, user comments, and feature requests.

Alternate Solution – Use VPN

You can also make use of a VPN to protect your identity online. Also, it can be used to send anonymous emails. The trick behind using VPN is not to subscribe to a free VPN service. Most times, a free VPN service tends to sell user data to third parties.

With the ability to vanish your IP address, VPN gives you invisibility, not only when sending emails, but also when browsing online.

Below are some of the trusted VPN service providers:

• NordVPN
• Ivacy
• Hotspot Shield

Don’t Forget This

Sending anonymous emails allows you to keep your identity hidden. It is essential not to use this guide for any illegal activities.