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OSINT - Disposable contact sites

GeneralEdward Kiledjian
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The purpose of this blog article is to share some useful sites that will allow you to create temporary contact mechanisms for OSINT, SIGINT or other cyber activities.

This is not an exhaustive list and I am simply listing these here to help you. This listing should not be considered a personal endorsement by me. Do your own research ;-)

Disposable email

10 minute email offers a quick way to receive email with an email address that disappears in 10 minutes. This free service can be useful if a site requires registration with email verification but you don’t want to give away your real email address and this is a one time use activity.

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Email forwarding service

There may be times where you want to protect your email address but need to regularly receive emails from an untrusted source or from a service you need to hide from. This is here AnonAddy comes in. They have a free plan for casual use and paid plans if you need a bit more functionality,

If you are technically inclined an require additional security or privacy, the service is based on an open source project so you can host this solution yourself as well.

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Send faxes anonymously for free

FaxZero is a fax service that allows you to send faxes for free. They do require that you click on an email confirmation link before they process your fax. Hence why I listed the other email services above. FaxZero does offer a paid service if you need priority faxing of higher volumes. The best recommendation is to use the free service during times when you believe they should be less busy therefore your faxes will go our sooner. In my testing (over 3 months), 95% of all my faxes (with the free fax service) were sent within 20 minutes.

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Send a Free anonymous text message (SMS)

Globfone is a free web based service that allows you to send SMS messages to almost any smartphone on any network anywhere in the world. it is anonymous and does not require a registration. It adds a small ad at the end of your SMS that reads “/try Globfone”.

The other services listed on their site seem much less reliable but the SMS one has worked every time.

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Receive SMS messages

There may be times when you need a temporary disposable inbound SMS number. This is where SMStoMe shines. It is a free service and requires no registration to use. Remember that inbound numbers are shared. Numbers are refreshed every 30 days and are capable of receiving SMS messages from any network in the world.

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Free WIFI cellphone number

There are many free WIFI calling and SMS services out there but the one I have found to be the most reliable is TextNow. You can buy an add free service with number protection for about $40 a year but the basic service (that should meet your OSINT needs) is free.

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Apple users send 2 billion iMessages a day

technologyEdward Kiledjian

I wrote about Whatsapp [processing 18 billion](http://www.kiledjian.com/main/2013/1/4/whatsapp-processed-18-billion-messages-on-december-31-2012.html) messages on New Year's day.

During Apple's quarterly presentation, we learned that Apple users send 1 billion iMessages a day. Apple solf 47.8 million iPhones during the quarter and the total IOS devices sold to date (from inception) now totals 500 million. 

Apple also saw the number of total iCLoud users jumped to 250 million in December 2012.

2 billion messages may seem like a lot but then you look at the cross-platform Whatsapp and realize they have a long way to go. The real losers in all of this are the carriers who are seeing their cash cow (SMS) erode a little more every day.

WhatsApp processed 18 billion messages on December 31 2012

technologyEdward Kiledjian
The King of Instant Mobile Messaging. Whatsapp had its busiest day yet with 18 billion messages being send over its network on December 31 2012.

WhatApp charges IOS users 99 cents per year. Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry users get the first year free and then are charged 99 cents per year thereafter. What makes WhatsApp very enticing is the fact it is cross platform. It has become the most popular paid app in many iTunes country stores and is winning against the mainstay BBM from Blackberry.

This means iMessage and Facebook Messenger have some interesting competition. Carriers on the other hand are seeing one of their most profitable services (SMS) vanish into thin air..

Archive your SMS messages in Evernote with mysms

technologyEdward Kiledjian

I love Evernote and the team is always looking for new ways to make their users experience better. I use Evernote as my digital filling cabinet and imagine my surprise when I heard about a new function in mysms that allows you to archive your SMS messages in the wonderfully searchable world of Evernote.

The idea of mysms

The idea is simple yet powerful. You install the mysms app on your smartphone (iphone, android, windows phone) and any sms messages you receive are sent to the mysms cloud. Once in their cloud, you can access (send and/or receive) SMS messages from a mac/windows app or a Chrome plugin. Unlike other third party messaging apps, the other party doesn’t have to download any apps or use any special numbers. They send and receive SMS’ like normal (including MMS messages).

Why archive SMS’?

As a business person, I keep every email I receive and take copious notes during any meeting I attend. Information traceability is good. So the idea of permanently storing my SMS messages in Evernote is very appealing. It means they will always be available and searchable should something come up.

And if your phone ever breaks or get's stollen, no worries about your SMS messages.

How does it look in Evernote?

Each person you message with get’s their own note. Every new message is automatically added to their note which makes finding the right note easy.

Verdict

It seems the Android integration is much better than the IOS one. That is more a result of Apple’s restrictive policies than the mysms team. Cool idea and good implementation. If this is something you find useful, give it a try and let me know what you think.