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As the title suggests, what is the name or the best way of referring to the second mail accounts many users on the internet open only for unimportant websites in order to avoid being spammed.

Disposable mail addresses are another thing, and spam mail accounts is too generic and would conflict with thousand of results searches for "how to avoid spam on my mail account".

EDIT: They also are not throwaway addresses or temporary emails because people use them for extended periods of time and even forever as "unofficial email" just for unimportant websites.

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    The term is throwaway.
    – RegDwigнt
    Aug 6, 2014 at 12:25
  • fake mail id's?
    – G.L.P
    Aug 6, 2014 at 12:30
  • It can also be called a junk email address or a fake email address.
    – JLG
    Aug 6, 2014 at 12:34
  • They are not throwaway actually, people use them as a secondary mail address but only for spam for extended periods and even forever. It simply is an unofficial email.
    – dendini
    Aug 6, 2014 at 13:30
  • nice work Reg !
    – Fattie
    Aug 6, 2014 at 14:44

5 Answers 5

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I call mine my 'secondary' email address. 'Auxiliary' might also suit the purpose, since the concepts of supplementary, helpful, and kept in reserve are implied by its definition.

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    Here's a curiosity. Some folks don't realise, if you add "plus number" on you email, on most services it usually still works. So, if you are [email protected] or [email protected], usually, [email protected] or [email protected] .. will also work. Use any number. It's very handy if you are, say, testing an app or website.
    – Fattie
    Aug 6, 2014 at 14:46
  • "secondary" seems to be about right.
    – Fattie
    Aug 6, 2014 at 14:46
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    Regarding the plus sign in the address, this is properly called an address tag, less commonly a sub-address. The + character is expressly permitted in email addresses, as explained by RFC 3696, so rest easy that anyone who doesn't support it is wrong.
    – Patrick M
    Aug 6, 2014 at 18:34
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Some people refer to these as a spambox, a portmanteau of spam and inbox. I don't have a reference for this as more sources assume you're asking about a spam or junk mail folder, so you just have to take this as an anecdote.

Note that there is a temporary email service called spambox.us that acts as an auto-expiring auxiliary email address (like 10-minute-mail but more configurable and auto-forwarding to an email you provide). However, I maintain that this is a newer usage of the term spambox (as spambox.us was registered in 2006).

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Your public email address, which you use for accounts that are likely to sell your address, in contrast to your private email address, which you give only to your friends.

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  • public and private seems a good way to describe them
    – dendini
    Aug 7, 2014 at 15:01
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I know it as an "email alias."

My email service provides me with a primary email address and allows several additional "aliases" attached to that account.

I am able to configure my mail client to send email from any of those email aliases, which, occasionally, is handy.

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  • If mail addressed to one of your aliases goes into your primary mailbox, then (I believe) this isn't what the question is asking for. Aug 6, 2014 at 17:26
  • By Scott, I think you're right. Thanks for clearing that up. Okay then, I suppose it should be called a "bogus" or "dummy" email address.
    – loskop
    Aug 6, 2014 at 17:36
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It think it is: "pseudo Email"

pseudo acts as something which pretends to be there.

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