SpamGourmet
By Larry
J. Seltzer
February 25, 2003
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Editor Rating: 
SpamGourmet (free) has some interesting innovations, but it also has
limitations on how many messages each address will be able to
accept. There are two modes, No-brainer and Advanced. In the former,
you get a user name and then you can give out self-destructing
addresses in the form whatever.n.username@spamgourmet.com, where
whatever is some word you choose and is the number of messages (up
to 20) that you can receive at that address until it
self-destructs—after which messages will return errors.
For example, crazylegs.4.larryseltzer@spamgourmet.com will be
able to receive four messages, and then senders will get error
messages. The problem is, anyone can send you a message using a
disposable account that you did not create: for example,
IAMSPAM.20.larryseltzer@spamgourmet.com.
There are advanced options to limit the number of possible
disposable addresses, but if this product became widely used it
would be easy for spamsters to work around the limits. Advanced mode
has several other features, the most interesting being that you can
also add trusted senders—people who can send messages without
contributing to the maximum message count for that address. This
will let you use a disposable address forever for legitimate
purposes—until it gets used by a spammer, at which point it'll
pass away.
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