Welcome to a guide on how to send an anonymous email and not get traced. So for some reason, you need to send out an email and not want anyone to know. Maybe to expose the plans of an evil organization to take over the world, or to warn a certain superhero group on an impending alien invasion.
It is actually impossible to send out “totally anonymous emails”, but tracing can be made extremely difficult with a combination of various services.
- Secure your Internet connection using a VPN – There are free services such as TunnelBear.
- Optionally, use an additional proxy server such as Hide Me.
- Use the TOR browser.
- Use a free anonymous email service, such as Guerilla Mail.
But just how does this work exactly? Read on to find out how!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Secure Connection |
 Private Browsing |
 Unidentified Email |
 Useful Bits |
 The End |
STEP 1) SECURE CONNECTION
All right, let us now get started with securing the Internet connection first – This is the one that gets traced the easiest and the one that gets people into trouble. No need to purchase illegal crazy hacker equipment, there are still a couple of ways to secure the connection.
CONNECTIONS CAN BE TRACED
To fully understand how your Internet connection is easily traceable, here is a quick crash course on the technical stuff.
- Every device on the Internet has a unique IP address – You can see your own IP address on whatismyip.com.
- This IP address is assigned to your device by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
- We leave device and IP address traces everywhere, on various server logs – When we access a website, use online service, watch videos, upload something, download something, send out emails.
So yep, even if one manages to send out an anonymous email, creeps can still try to trace where it came from – By finding out where the originating IP address is. Once they have it, it’s game over since the ISP has all your information – Name, address, credit card, and more.
VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK (VPN)
Even if the ISP doesn’t release your information, the IP address can still trace back to a certain ISP and region. So the whole idea here is to hide your original IP address as much as possible.
This is where the VPN comes in. In layman’s terms, we connect to a VPN server to “hide” our IP address, add another layer to the security and anonymity. There are various free VPN services that you can sign up for:
PROXY SERVER
Still don’t feel safe!? Then use an additional proxy server (or proxy service) to access the Internet – In layman’s terms again, this bounces your already VPN-protected connection off yet another server. That is:
- Connect to the VPN.
- Use any of the following proxy services:
Yep… That’s like multiple layers of protection. If anyone still doesn’t give up and wants to trace, that must be a really determined creep.
STEP 2) PRIVATE BROWSING
Remember from 5 minutes ago that we mentioned: “we leave traces on the Internet everywhere”? Our search history gets tracked, connection history logged, what video we watched gets recorded. While the VPN does help in adding another layer of security, we do not want to leave any fingerprints behind.
THE TOR BROWSER
Well, not going into the technical stuff, but here – Use the TOR browser on top of a VPN connection if you really want to keep the creeps off your back.
STEP 3) UNIDENTIFIED EMAIL
Finally, let us move into creating and sending out anonymous emails. No, we do not need to write crazy hacker scripts and stuff. There are 2 ways to do this easily – By creating a “crash and burn” email account or using a free anonymous email service.
OPTION 1 – CRASH AND BURN EMAIL
This one should be pretty self-explanatory, don’t ever use your own email account. Just create a fake email account and discard it after sending out the email. But the problem with most email services these days is that they require a phone number or credit card to sign up… Which definitely leaves traceable tracks.
But thankfully, there are still a few good email providers that do not require a phone number to sign up. Try your luck with these:
P.S. Another Captain Obvious note – Do not use your own name to sign up nor leave any traceable hints.
OPTION 2 – ANONYMOUS EMAIL
Alternatively, there are various free anonymous email services that we can use all over the Internet. These services do not require any signup, but you cannot receive any email with them as well… These are truly “crash and burn” email accounts.
ANONYMOUS EMAILS MAY BE MARKED AS SPAM!
Some of you guys may be thinking that anonymous email services are a better choice because they do not leave traces. But there is just one problem with it, and that is, people have abused these services to send out spam.
Yep, no thanks to these black sheep, anonymous email services tend to be blacklisted by many – They get marked as spam or get blocked by firewalls; Anonymous emails may not reach your intended recipient. So you decide, get a crash and burn email account, or risk the email not getting to where it should be.
USEFUL BITS & LINKS
That’s all for this guide, and here is a small section on some extras and links that may be useful to you.
DON’T USE YOUR OWN INTERNET CONNECTION & COMPUTER DEVICE
How does one get busted? When the creeps manage to trace back to your Internet connection, registered under your name, with your address on it. So if you are really paranoid, don’t ever use your own Internet connection nor computer device.
STILL TRACEABLE, JUST A MATTER OF HOW DIFFICULT.
With all the above measures, tracing will surely become very difficult… But even if it is virtually impossible, that does not mean one can just disappear into thin air. Creeps who are smart and determined enough can still find cracks and clues somewhere.
So yep, to you guys who are thinking of abusing anonymity to do bad things, think twice. Even the VPN services keep connection logs and they will release them when the law knocks hard enough – This is to prevent terrorists from abusing the services. To you good whistleblowers, you have bought yourself some time to run and disappear.
LINKS & REFERENCES
- How to send anonymous emails – PC World
- How to Send Anonymous Emails: 5 Stealthy Methods – Make Use Of
- 12 Free Email Services (Without Phone Verification) – Red Dot Geek
- How Do I Send an Email that Can’t Be Traced Back to Me? – Ask Leo!
THE END
Thank you for reading, and we have come to the end of this guide. I hope this has helped you to better understand, and if you have anything to share with this guide, please feel free to comment below. Good luck and may the cyber force be with you.
