Throw away email accounts

For work I had to create a lot of test email accounts. I had used bloglines to create temporary email accounts but I had to create the account before I used it. My main goal was to find a service that I didn’t have to create the email accounts in advance and had no ads. I ended up using spamgourmet but here are the rest of my findings.

• http://pookmail.com/mailbox.php

  • RSS to monitor an account
  • no ads
  • doesn’t like graphics in emails

• http://www.spamhole.com/

  • creates a temporary forwarding email account
  • you have to create the account before using it
  • you can provide a password to the account so you don’t need to verify each time

• http://www.mytrashmail.com/

  • graphical emails work properly
  • lots of annoying ads
  • you have the option to forward emails or not to another account
  • RSS to monitor account

• http://www.mailinator.com/

  • no ads
  • graphics, scripts are striped from the emails

• http://www.spamgourmet.com/

  • forwards to an existing email address
  • you can pick new throw-away email addresses at will after your account has been verified
  • a lot of different filter options available
  • you can specify how many emails to receive to a specific email address (most of the other ones offer a feature of a time expiry)

• http://www.dodgeit.com/

  • RSS
  • No ads
  • no setup

If I didn’t need graphics to work in the email I think pookmail or mailinator are the best services. If you don’t mind the ads then mytrashmail is great since it lets you see the graphical emails.