Keep your email addresses safe with aliases

Shield your email from the long arm of the spam

- ALEX BLAKE

SPAM IS THE scourge of the modern internet, and there are few people yet to be bedevilled by it.

Fortunately, there are several ways you can fight back, and one of them is through using email aliases. These are alternate email addresses that redirect to your main inbox — hand out an alias and your regular email address remains uncompromised. And if an address gets spammed, most places enable you to quickly disable it.

Aliases aren’t just useful for countering spam, either; you can use them to filter and organize your incoming messages while maintaining a single inbox, for example.

SIMPLE AND SOPHISTICATED

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to create and use aliases with Gmail, iCloud, and Outlook. Gmail’s method is the simplest and merely requires appending a “+” symbol and an extra word to the end of your normal email address, although it does mean savvy ne’er—do-wells could suss out your real address.

You get a more sophisticated approach with iCloud, as its Hide My Email feature generates a throwaway account every time you need one. You need a paid iCloud+ subscription for this, although iCloud.com gives you three aliases for free. Outlook, meanwhile, enables you to add fresh addresses that redirect into your main inbox and can be disabled at any time.