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Comment by dools | Hacker News Reader

For anyone wanting to stop signups from disposable email addresses I've found this service to be really good:

has a massive database and a bounty for new additions!

We have 2 factor verification for http://8centsms.com/ but with the advent of disposable inbound SMS numbers via Twilio as well as disposable email addresses we were getting a bunch of people signing up and getting the free 10 credits repeatedly.

We haven't seen the problem recur since implementing this service, though so it seems the coverage is pretty good (/me prepares for onslaught of fake email signups to get the 10 free SMS credits via fake Twilio numbers ... )

All we need now is a service to blacklist disposable mobile numbers!!

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I use disposable emails only to signup to services. I later save the email and pwd with 1Password. I've been doing this for a long time.

The reason I do this is because many startups (and non-startups) keep abusing on the amount of email they send you, even if I unsubscribe from their "newsletter" they come up with other non-newsletter emails - and this is just unbearable. I feel like being spammed most of the time.

The advantage of using disposable email is that I have access to the service, I decide when I receive emails and it's a great way to protect my account from being hacked (think of any recent social eng hack a la Amazon, Apple, etc. they couln't do it without your signin email).

A handful of other colleagues do the same thing. If you blacklist users who want to protect their privacy and want control over their inbox all you are doing is blocking (in our case) affluent users.

Many email services offer disposable addresses integrated with your real email account.

Yahoo in particular has an excellent system for doing this; you can generate disposable addresses by adding a unique string to a base name particular to your account (but which isn't identical to your real address, as it is if you use a '+' delimiter with Gmail). By default, all messages received at any disposable address go to your primary inbox, but you can designate an alternate folder for each of them. Since all of your disposable addresses are @yahoo.com, it's impossible for admins to blacklist the domain.

Sorry if this sounds like a commercial for Yahoo Mail; I'm just very happy with this feature and almost never resort to using Mailinator et al.

DEA users are most likely long time internet users who care about their privacy and have learned to protect their email. At the same time, they have enough interest to register and try your stuff - so let them be... If the site requires users to enter an email address for freebies, savvy users will eventually find a way around it, as you suggested. You might also be blocking the early adopters. Eg. bloggers who want to review your stuff, etc!

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