Using Disposable Addresses
This is a Yahoo! Mail Plus feature. 
| Getting Started | Creating Disposable Addresses | Using Disposable Addresses | AddressGuard on the Toolbar | Deleting Disposable Addresses |
Getting Started With AddressGuard
Occasionally, you may be reluctant to share your Yahoo! Mail Plus address with an unfamiliar web site or other Internet service. After all, you don't want it to end up on some spammer's mailing list! Instead of creating a secondary email account to give out (as many people do to protect their primary address), you can use AddressGuard.
AddressGuard lets you create alternate, “disposable” email addresses to use whenever you don't want to give out your real Yahoo! Mail Plus address. When someone responds using one of your disposable addresses, Yahoo! Mail Plus delivers the message to your Inbox or to a personal folder of your choice.
All the disposable addresses that you create in AddressGuard use the same simple pattern:
yourbasename-keyword@yahoo.com
You choose one base name (yourbasename). Once you have established the base name, you can create up to 500 disposable addresses, each using a different keyword of your choice. For example, if you chose jacaranda9441 as your base name, you can create jacaranda9441-sneakerstore@yahoo.com, jacaranda9441-FlyHighAirline@yahoo.com, and so on. You can create new addresses right at the time that you need them, from either the Mail Options page or from the Yahoo! Toolbar.
Tip: You can't use your Yahoo! ID or profile for either the base name or a keyword. This prevents anyone from figuring out your real Yahoo! Mail Plus address from your disposable addresses.
If any of your disposable email addresses starts receiving spam, simply delete that address from AddressGuard. Future messages sent to the deleted address bounce back to the sender instead of filling up your Yahoo! Mail Plus account.
To get started using AddressGuard, you need to specify your base name and an initial disposable address.
(More Details)
Here’s How
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Go to your Yahoo! Mail Plus page and click the Options link in the upper-right corner of the page.
The Mail Options page appears.
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Under the Spam column on the Mail Options page, click the AddressGuard link.
If this is the first time that you've used AddressGuard, the AddressGuard introductory page appears. Otherwise the regular AddressGuard page appears.
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On the AddressGuard introductory page, click the Get Started Now button.
The first AddressGuard setup page appears.
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Enter a base name of your choice, then click the Continue button.
Tip: Your base name must begin with a letter, contain no spaces or symbols and be different from your Yahoo! ID.
AddressGuard checks whether or not the base name you've entered is available. If it's not available, AddressGuard directs you to choose another base name.
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Confirm that you want to use the available base name, or specify another base name by clicking the Continue button.
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The next page prompts you to create your first disposable address. Enter a keyword to use with your base name, then click the Continue button.
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Specify your preferences for this disposable address, then click the Set Up AddressGuard button to finish the setup process.
Tip: Learn more about disposable address preferences here.
What’s Next
On the final AddressGuard setup page, you can add other disposable addresses.
You can also return to AddressGuard later to create additional disposable addresses whenever you need them.
Words to Know
- Base name: the first part of your disposable address, which is common to all the addresses you create using AddressGuard.
- Disposable email address: a customized email address that you create using AddressGuard to protect your regular Yahoo! Mail Plus address.
- Folder: a container that holds individual elements specific to the context; for example, email messages in Yahoo! Mail.
- Keyword: the unique, second part of a disposable address you create using AddressGuard.
- Spammer: someone who sends spam.
- Yahoo! ID: the name by which a person is known to the Yahoo! network.