Ways to send completely anonymous e-mails

6 May 2023 6 minutes Author: Lady Liberty

Anonymous email is not so anonymous

Security of e-mail messages has been an important concern since its inception. Besides the fact that there are flaws in the email protocols themselves, the ability to contact anyone, anywhere, for free and anonymously is often used by attackers. Although this type of fraud is not as obvious a threat today as it once was, it is an example of how dangerous e-mail can be. When you start solving this task, remember one thing: the Internet will want to calculate you, it will try to find you. Even if you set up an anonymous account and then send or receive an email, you can be counted. You log in from the same IP addresses, visit the same sites, and leave a lot of your own digital footprint everywhere you go. Yes, initially the files created in your anonymous mailbox will belong to the unknown user #xxxx . Eventually, enough data will be compiled by certain algorithms and they will say, “Hey, this anonymous user looks just like another person, someone we already know.” And after that, more clues will be found to identify you and your configured anonymous email account will be declassified.

Setting up an anonymous email account is usually simple, although this of course depends on what level of anonymity you want. If you just want to keep your emails private from your spouse or colleague, you can set up a new account that they won’t know about. If you have thought about the problem of personal protection against all kinds of Internet threats or want your digital footprint to be hidden from those who are interested in tracking you, the task becomes much more difficult.

Temporary email and VPN

Services like Gmail are one of the options for working with anonymous e-mail, since you do not need to provide personal data during registration. The created address can then be used on a permanent basis if there is a need to send an anonymous letter.

What’s more, when sending an email from Gmail, the sender address (from where the email came from) is indicated in the header of the email by Google’s server, and not your personal IP address, which increases the level of anonymity. If the recipient of the letter wants to track the sender by the header, he will see only the IP address of the Google server, which may not necessarily be located near you.

However, traces still remain because your actual IP address is stored on mail servers. Therefore, if the government or other authorities with relevant authority make a request, Google will release your real IP address. The next step to increasing anonymity is to use a virtual private network, or VPN. We recommend paid services with a good reputation.

If you send email over a VPN, then:

  • The mail server address will not match your location.

  • If the government makes a request, Google will only be able to release the VPN address.

It is because of the second point that it is especially important to use a reliable service with a good reputation, which does not store the details of your connection. In the case of a free VPN, the probability of storing and transferring logs increases significantly. Don’t confuse an anonymous temporary address with a disposable email.

Email client connected to VPN

The second method for sending anonymous letters is to use a client installed on the computer.

Anonymity is achieved in three steps:

  • Registration of a temporary address in services such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, GMX, etc.

  • Installing Thunderbird or another free client.

  • Connecting to a VPN.

First, we need to connect to the VPN and make sure that all traffic from the computer is going through the remote IP address. Then we send the letter using the client, using a temporary address. Thus, the header will show the address of the VPN service instead of your IP address.

AnonEmail

AnonEmail is a service that allows you to send anonymous emails through a chain of random nodes. Accordingly, it becomes almost impossible to trace the IP address of the sender. AnonEmail is easy to use. You need to specify the recipient, the subject of the letter, the message and click on the “Send Anonymously” button. Unlike other similar services, AnonEMail does not store (or pretend not to store) your IP address. I was unable to trace my IP address during testing, but sending anything important or illegal is still not recommended. As an added security measure, AnonEmail waits a certain amount of time before sending an email so that the time of sending cannot be tracked to potential geographic zones and time zones of your location.

Cyber Atlantis

Cyber Atlantis – another free service for sending anonymous emails with hiding the sender’s IP address and supporting PGP encryption. Thus, the level of security becomes even higher, since only the owner of the public key will be able to decrypt the contents of the letter (using the secret key). However, unintended consequences can occur when using a public-key scheme. For example, if only a limited number of people have the encryption key, the recipient of the letter can try to find out the sender.

ProtonMail

If you need a completely secure, anonymous and two-way mail service, ProtonMail is your choice. Used by millions of people, this service has been providing email security services for quite some time.

Some key features:

  • End-to-End Encryption: All messages at rest are encrypted, not just those sent from ProtonMail’s servers. Without access to the corresponding account in the ProtonMail service, no one will be able to read your messages.

  • Full protection of user data: encryption uses a key stored only on your computer. Thus, even ProtonMail system administrators cannot access your messages. Disadvantage of the scheme: the administrator will not be able to restore access to the account. Advantage: Access may also not be granted at the request of government or other entities.

  • Open-source cryptography: Because ProtonMail uses open-source encryption libraries, you can be sure that there are no “backdoors” for email access by both administrators and hackers.

If you regularly send anonymous emails, pay attention to the ProtonMail service and use this address as the main one.

Which service is better

The answer to this question depends on your needs. If you want to maintain anonymity and security on a regular basis, consider ProtonMail, as even service administrators cannot access your emails. If the need arises infrequently, use one of the free web services.

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