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MaskMe

Neil J. Rubenking
 & Neil J. Rubenking Principal Writer, Security

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

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Abine's MaskMe service creates unique disposable email addresses for every website you communicate with, thereby keeping your real email off of spammers' lists. As a bonus, it will create and manage strong, unique passwords. - MaskMe
3.5 Good

The Bottom Line

Abine's MaskMe service creates unique disposable email addresses for every website you communicate with, thereby keeping your real email off of spammers' lists. As a bonus, it will create and manage strong, unique passwords.

Pros & Cons

    • Disposable email addresses can be wiped out if they start receiving spam.
    • Easy email forwarding.
    • Online management.
    • Creates unique, strong passwords.
    • Identifies re-used passwords.
    • Captures and replays login credentials.
    • No ability to organize passwords or link directly to sites with stored credentials.
    • Doesn't handle non-standard login pages.
    • Doesn't import or export passwords.

Hardly a day goes by without news of another organization suffering a data breach involving thousands or even millions of stolen user data records. If your email information appears in the mix, your antispam utility will probably see a spike in pointless mail. Abine's free MaskMe service lets you communicate with retailers, discussion groups, and other websites without ever giving them your actual email address, so they can't lose it in a data breach (or sell it to spammers). As a bonus, it also serves as a simple password manager.

MaskMe installs as an add-on for Firefox or Chrome; support for Safari and Internet Explorer is planned. The only immediately visible sign of MaskMe's presence is a small button on the toolbar.

Levels of Service

Just after installation, MaskMe runs as a local service. Your password data stays on your PC or Mac, and you can check your masked emails by logging in to your MaskMe temporary Inbox online. That arrangement is very secure, but not nearly as convenient as just using your normal email client.

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Most users will want to set up email forwarding. In this mode, MaskMe forwards each received message to your actual email address, keeping a copy in the temporary inbox for four hours in case there's a problem with forwarding. Any response to the forwarded message will be automatically tweaked to show the masked email address as the sender. Setting up an email address also lets you have MaskMe fill in your real, unmasked email address, if you desire.

Upgrading from basic MaskMe to MaskMe Online is free. Doing so lets you backup your MaskMe data to the cloud, sync between multiple PCs, and access your data from any computer.

MaskMe Premium, currently in beta, will add a number of very useful features. With a Premium subscription you can sync your MaskMe data to iOS or Android devices and make masked phone calls, so the person you call won't get your actual phone number. Even more impressive is the masked credit card feature, which lets you generate a one-use credit card for each transaction. We'll review MaskMe Premium when its beta period finishes.

Masked Email

Using MaskMe to protect your email account is really, really easy. When you click on a Web form field that asks for an email address, MaskMe pops up a tiny menu window just below the field offering to mask your email. Click the button and it fills in the field with a random email address like "7bf147ea@opayq.com" that's specific to the website in question. If you've set up email forwarding, you'll also get the option to auto-fill your real email address.

When the website sends you mail, it first hits the MaskMe online mailbox and then, assuming you've set up forwarding, moves along to your regular inbox. Here's where it gets interesting. If you ever receive a spam message to one of your masked emails, you can immediately disable that address by clicking a link in the header that MaskMe inserts into the message. You can also review your masked email addresses online and block or un-block any of them with a single click.

In testing, I found a few sites where MaskMe didn't offer to mask my email. If that happens to you, just right-click the entry field and find "Mask My Email" under the MaskMe submenu. It's also possible to enter a domain directly in the MaskMe online console and generate a masked email for that domain.

Of course, MaskMe can't do anything about spammers who've already obtained your actual email address. To get full-scale spam protection, you'd need to create a brand-new email address and remember to always, always mask it.

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Final Thoughts

Abine's MaskMe service creates unique disposable email addresses for every website you communicate with, thereby keeping your real email off of spammers' lists. As a bonus, it will create and manage strong, unique passwords. - MaskMe

MaskMe

3.5 Good

Abine's MaskMe service creates unique disposable email addresses for every website you communicate with, thereby keeping your real email off of spammers' lists. As a bonus, it will create and manage strong, unique passwords.

About Our Expert

Neil J. Rubenking

Neil J. Rubenking

Principal Writer, Security

My Experience

When the IBM PC was new, I served as the president of the San Francisco PC User Group for three years. That’s how I met PCMag’s editorial team, who brought me on board in 1986. In the years since that fateful meeting, I’ve become PCMag’s expert on security, privacy, and identity protection, putting antivirus tools, security suites, and all kinds of security software through their paces.

Before my current security gig, I supplied PCMag readers with tips and solutions on using popular applications, operating systems, and programming languages in my "User to User" and "Ask Neil" columns, which began in 1990 and ran for almost 20 years. Along the way, I wrote more than 40 utility articles, as well as Delphi Programming for Dummies and six other books covering DOS, Windows, and programming. I also reviewed thousands of products of all kinds, ranging from early Sierra Online adventure games to AOL’s precursor Q-Link.

In the early 2000s, I turned my focus to security and the growing antivirus industry. After years of working with antivirus, I’m known throughout the security industry as an expert on evaluating antivirus tools. I serve as an advisory board member for the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO), an international nonprofit group dedicated to coordinating and improving testing of anti-malware solutions.

The Technology I Use

Much of the testing I do, particularly testing with real-world ransomware, is just plain dangerous. To perform such tests safely, I sequester them inside virtual machines managed by VMWare Workstation. For cross-platform testing, I use a MacBook Air, a Google Pixel 4, and a 6th-generation iPad.

I rely on my Delphi coding skills to create and maintain small applications. These include programs to check whether an antivirus correctly handled the malware it detected, launch dangerous URLs and record the security program’s reaction, and analyze the malware that I collect for use in testing. I also wrote a tiny browser and text editor for use in testing security apps that have predefined reactions for known products.

I do my writing and research on a Dell OptiPlex desktop, relying on Microsoft Word (my fingers know all the shortcuts). Many of my articles include charts and analysis; Excel is my go-to for those. When work hours end, though, I escape the bounds of Microsoft and Windows. There’s an iPhone in my pocket, I relax with my oversized iPad, and my Kindle Oasis is always loaded with the best science fiction and fantasy.

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