As part of our entirely free service, Bulc Club gives members access to unlimited email forwarders and gives members and the public access to unlimited free disposable email addresses, or BulcBurners. But what’s the difference between forwarders and burners, and when do you use them?
A Bulc Club Email Forwarder is an address that simply receives and forwards email to another email address. There is no mailbox to check and members cannot send mail from a forwarder. They’re also called forwarding addresses or email forwarding.
A BulcBurner, or single-use, disposable email address, is similar to an email forwarder but it may only forward one email before it’s automatically destroyed. They’re also called temporary email addresses or DEAs.
Both Bulc Club Forwarders and BulcBurners are entirely free, and used to prevent the transmission of spam and malware to our members’ private email inboxes. They act as intermediaries between nefarious online businesses and your personal email. Simply put: they allow you to receive communications without exposing your private information.
But this is where the similarities between forwarders and burner email addresses end. All burners (including BulcBurners) transmit the email regardless of its sender or its contents. This means that if you subscribe to a spam list, you’ll receive a spam email. If someone first emails your burner malware, a virus, or malicious code, it will be forwarded to your inbox.
Bulc Club Email Forwarders Benefits
- BulcBurners may be used one time. Forwarders may be used unlimited times.
- BulcBurners must be created manually, each time they’re needed, but forwarders are created automatically the first time they’re used.
- Every email we receive through a forwarder is automatically evaluated based on email sender address, domain, location, and IP address. We then check the Member Rating for this sender and if their spam score is greater than 50%, we hold the message in a queue rather than delivering it to your inbox. This prevents the transmission of viruses and malware, along with the annoyance of receiving unwanted spam messages.
- Bulc Club Forwarders can be configured to only receive email from one email address (e.g., notifications@linkedin.com) or from only one mailserver domain (e.g., kickstarter.com). This means that if forwarders are ever sold or shared, the only messages that will be able to get through to members’ personal inboxes are from the original business you provided it to (i.e., LinkedIn, Kickstarter). Disreputable businesses can sell and share as much as they want, you’ll never receive a single spam!
Tip: See our Case Study on “InstantCheckmate” for a great example of how it works.
- You can also review statistics on every forwarder you create. This helps you to identify who sold and shared your information and – if Member Ratings missed a spam message – take quick, corrective action to prevent any spam from getting through.
Now that you know the differences between Bulc Club Email Forwarders and BulcBurner disposable email addresses, here are a few examples of where you should use each:
BulcBurners
- Email address verification for an app or online service that doesn’t use email for primary communication
- One-time-only validation, such as a forum you only expect to access or use, once
- Extraneous access to non-critical web pages that require you to enter an email address to see the content (e.g., clickbait, petitions, surveys, etc.)
Bulc Club Email Forwarders
- Social Media and Online Services that require regular access and communication through email
- Online services where users may need to validate email addresses or use “Forgot Username” or “Forgot Password” forms
- Inquiries to businesses known for selling information (e.g., Credit Scores, Mortgage Inquiries, Credit Cards, Banks, Online Retailers, etc.)
- Mailing Lists, Newsletters, and other online subscriptions where users expect to regularly receive email messages
- Brick-and-mortar retailers (like coffee shops) that require email addresses for point-of-sale order receipts
- Online Contests or Sweepstakes that may send you one or multiple emails before they announce the winner
Tired of receiving spam? Join the Club! It’s entirely free.