How does an anonymous remailer work?

An anonymous remailer is a server that accepts properly formatted incoming email messages and resends them anonymously. To use an anonymous remailer, simply send a properly formatted email message to the email address of the remailer. For this tutorial, we will be using a Cypherpunk [cpunk] (Type 1 remailer). A list of reliable remailers is available here.

How to use a Cypherpunk Anonymous Remailer

• Create a new message in your email software (or using Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.).
• Insert the address of the remailer your are using as the recipient in the To: field. (For the example below, we have used remailer@cypherpunks.to )
• Give the message a subject .
• On the first line of the body of your email, type “::” (two colons).
• On the line immediately following, type “Anon-To: “, followed by the address of the final recipient of your message.
• Leave one black line and then type your message .
• Click send and your message will be sent.

For example, create a new email to be sent to: remailer@cypherpunks.to. Set the subject as whatever you like.
Add the following to the body of the email. Do not include the angle brackets (” > “) in your email:
> ::
> Anon-To: recipient@address.com
>
> Type your message here.

The above example, uses thecypherpunks.to remailer. Once sent, the email will be remailed anonymously by cypherpunks to recipient@address.com. The recipient will not be able to determine where or from whom the message originated.

Some remailers will strip the subject line of the original email. In order to have a subject for the recipient to view, you must specify in the headers section, after ## in the message: Any headers after the ## will be seen by the recipient.

To: remailer@cypherpunks.to
Subject: Testing anonymous email
> Body:
> ::
> Anon-To: recipient@address.com
>
> ##
> Subject: Subject of message
>
> Type your message here.

The above example made use of the remailer@cypherpunks.to remailer. There are many remailers out there, and new ones pop up all the time. For the above examples you will want to choose a Cypherpunk [cpunk] remailer. Other reliable Cypherpunk remailers include:

remailer@dizum.com
anon@deuxpi.ca
mix@remailer.metacolo.com
randseed@melontraffickers.com

View a full list of reliable remailers with statistics.

To receive specific instructions on each remailer, send a message with the subject “remailer-help” to the remailer you wish to use. You will receive back an email with instructions and details specific to that remailer.

Other Variations on Cypherpunk Remailers

To post to a newsgroup, use the Anon-Post-To: field. Your message will look like this:

> To: remailer@cypherpunks.to
> Subject: Testing anonymous newsgroup posting
>
> Body:
> ::
> Anon-Post-To: alt.test
>
> ##
> Subject: Subject of message
>
> Type your newsgroup posting here.

You can delay when a message is resent by the remailer. This can be useful because your mailserver may have a record of you sending a message to a remailer. This information leakage permits possible “traffic analysis.” For example, if someone receives an anonymous message shortly after you sent a message to a remailer it is likely that you are the true sender. This can be solved by asking the remailer to delay before it resends your message. If you use, in the header the Latent-Time: field, the remailer will hold your message for a specified amount of time. Latent-Time: +1:00 would delay the message for one hour. You may randomize this number by adding “r” after the time. Latent-Time: +3:00r would delay the message for a random amount of time, up to three hours.

The body of a message using Latent-Time: will look like this:
> ::
> Anon-To: recipient@address.com
> Latent Time: +5:00
>
> ##
> Subject: Subject of message
>
> Type your message here.

You can use a random delay by adding “r”, for example “Latent-Time: +5:00r” would delay the message for up to five hours. Another method of avoiding traffic analisys is to send empty messages to a remailer. You can use “Null:” instead of “Anon-To:” and the remailer will discard your message.

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