Disposable Reply Addresses

Disposable reply addresses let you reply to someone without revealing your real PrMail address. This guide explains how they work and how to turn them on.

How it works

1. You receive an email from someone outside PrMail, for example [email protected].
2. You open it and click Reply.
3. When you send, PrMail creates a temporary address such as [email protected] and sends your reply from it.
4. Bob sees the temporary address, not your real one. If he replies to it, his reply comes back to your inbox.
5. When the expiry period you chose has passed, the temporary address stops working.

If you reply to the same person again while their temporary address is still active, PrMail reuses it, so the conversation stays consistent.

Turn it on

1. Go to PrMail › Settings and scroll to Disposable Reply Addresses.
2. Tick Enable disposable reply addresses.
3. Choose how long each address lasts: Expire after 7 days, 14, 30 (default), 60 or 90 days.
4. Click Save.

Once you have active disposable addresses, this section shows how many.

When a disposable address is used

• Replies only. It's used when you click Reply on an email. New emails you write with Compose, and forwards, use your real address.
• Outside PrMail only. Replies to other @prmail.uk addresses use your real address.
• Based on the first recipient. PrMail looks at the first address in the To field. Everyone on that reply, including anyone in CC, sees the same temporary address.
• Not for Secure Messages. Secure Message notifications always come from your real address.

Your Sent folder shows the temporary address as the sender, so you can see which address each reply went out from.

Why use it

Even if you trust someone today, your address can travel further than you expect: a company might be breached or sell its mailing list, or a reply might be forwarded to people you don't know. With disposable replies, your real address stays private, and an address that starts attracting spam simply expires.

Remember the expiry. Once an address expires, replies sent to it won't reach you, and your next reply to that person goes out from a new temporary address. If you expect a conversation to carry on for a long time, choose a longer expiry.