What is a burner email?
Reviewed by Anthon Wansland
Head of Product & Co-Founder
Serus is a privacy company with paid tools to find and remove your personal data. This page is free and based on official sources.
Definition
A burner email is a secondary email address you use for sign-ups, one-off forms or sites you don't trust, then stop using or delete, so spam and leaks don't reach your main inbox.
- Category
- Privacy
- Also called
- burner email address, throwaway email, disposable email
- Last updated
Sources checked: cisa.gov, ico.org.uk
Last verified against the official page:
"Burner" is slang borrowed from burner phones: an address you can throw away. There is no official definition, but the idea matches advice from CISA. It says that if you often give out your email address, keep a secondary account to shield your main one, and use it for public mailing lists, social networking sites, blogs and web forums. If that account fills with spam, CISA says you can close it and open a new one.
How people use it
Some people open a free mailbox and use it only for sign-ups. Others use an alias or forwarding address that lands in their real inbox but can be switched off. Either way, the aim is the same: your real address stays out of the lists that companies share and sell.
An example
You want a 10% discount code from a shop you'll use once. You enter a burner address. The shop's marketing emails, and any later leak of its customer list, go to a box you don't read. Your main address isn't in it.
Limits
A burner address doesn't hide who you are if you add your name, phone number or payment details at sign-up. If you need the address for a password reset later, you can lose the account when you delete it, so don't use a burner for anything you want to keep, like banking or shopping accounts. Also remember that a free mailbox can still be breached, so don't reuse a password.
Burner email vs. related terms
- Email alias is an extra address that forwards to your inbox.
- Email mask is a generated alias that hides your real address.
- Burner phone is the same idea applied to a phone number.
How to protect yourself
- 1
Use a secondary address for sign-ups
CISA suggests a second account for public lists, forums and other places that collect addresses, to shield your main one.
- 2
Keep your main address for accounts that matter
Use it for banking, government and work, and don't give it to sites you won't use again.
- 3
Don't reuse passwords
Give each account a different password. A password manager can store them, and two-step verification adds a second layer.
- 4
Don't answer or click spam
CISA advises against replying to unknown senders, since clicking or replying can confirm your address is live.
- 5
Find where your real address is listed
Serus finds where your email and other details are exposed and removes what can be taken down.
See where your personal data is exposed
Serus finds it on data brokers and people-search sites and removes it.
Frequently asked
Is a burner email legal?
Using a secondary address for sign-ups is a normal privacy practice. Laws against fraud or abuse apply whatever address you use. This isn't legal advice for a specific case.
What is the difference between a burner email and an alias?
A burner is usually a separate mailbox you abandon. An alias forwards mail to your real inbox and can be turned off.
Will a burner email stop spam?
It keeps spam away from your main inbox, but it doesn't stop a site from sending it to the burner address.
Sources
- Reducing Spam | CISA · cisa.gov
- I keep receiving marketing emails and I want them to stop · ico.org.uk
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