Terms of service

Last updated 10 October 2026

PhantomShield gives you email aliases: addresses at phantomshield.com that forward to your own inbox, so that every site you deal with can have a different address. It is run by PhantomShield LLC, a limited liability company registered in Maryland, United States. In these terms "we" means that company. They are the agreement between you and us, and you accept them when you create an account.

What the service does

You make an alias for each site or sender. Mail sent to an alias is forwarded to your inbox, and you can answer from the alias. Each alias keeps a record of who writes to it, flags senders it did not expect, and can be locked or switched off.

A flag means that a sender the alias did not expect has written to it. That is often a sign that the address was passed on or leaked, but it is a prompt to look, not proof. What you do about it, including anything you write to the company concerned, is your decision.

An early warning means that aliases which several other accounts made for the same site were flagged within a few weeks of each other. It is worked out from those flags and nothing else, so it too is a prompt to look, and says nothing certain about the site.

Email can go wrong in ways no service controls. We work to deliver every legitimate message, but we cannot promise that every message reaches you, or that every unwanted one is stopped. Do not make an alias the only way to reach you where a missed message could do serious harm.

Your account

• You must be at least 18.
• You sign up with an inbox that is yours. Your aliases forward there, and it is how we reach you.
• Keep your password to yourself. You are responsible for what is done through your account.
• The free trial is for trying the service once: one trial for each person or organisation.

The free trial

The first 14 days are free, and you do not need a card to start. During the trial an account can have up to 10 aliases, and the daily limits are lower than on a paid plan.

If you have not subscribed when the trial ends, mail to your aliases is put on hold for 7 days: the servers sending it are asked to try again later. Most keep trying for several days, but none has to, so some mail may be lost in that time. After the 7 days, mail to your aliases is refused. Your aliases and their records stay in your account, and they work again as soon as you subscribe.

Paying

• A subscription costs $3 a month or $30 a year, paid in advance. The prices are in US dollars. If you pay from another country, the payment page may show the amount in your own currency.
• Payments are handled by Link, a payment service run by Stripe, which is the seller of record for them. You pay on its page, and we never see or store your card details. Link works out and collects any sales tax or VAT that applies where you live, and the payment page shows it, and the total, before you pay. Your receipts come from Link by email, and your card statement shows LINK.COM* followed by our name. Link's own terms for buyers are shown on the payment page.
• A subscription renews by itself at the end of each month or year, at the price then in force, until you cancel it.
• If you subscribe during your free trial you keep the rest of it: the first payment is taken when the trial ends, or about two days after you subscribe if that is later. The payment page shows the date. If you subscribe after the trial, the first payment is taken straight away.
• If a renewal payment fails, Stripe tries the card again. The service carries on for 3 days. After that, mail to your aliases is put on hold for 7 days and then refused, as at the end of a trial, until the payment goes through.
• If we change a price, we email you at least 30 days before it applies to you. It applies from your next renewal, and you can cancel before then.

Cancelling and refunds

• You can cancel at any time: on the Account page, choose Manage billing, or cancel from your Link account if you have one. Your plan then runs to the end of the period you have paid for and does not renew.
• If you ask within 14 days of your first payment, we refund it in full and end the subscription. Write to support@phantomshield.com from the address you signed up with. Link, as the seller of record, may also refund a payment under its own rules.
• Other payments are not refunded, and we do not refund part of a period, except where these terms say otherwise or the law requires it.

Nothing in these terms takes away rights that the law where you live gives you as a consumer.

Fair use

So that the service stays healthy for everyone, an account can have up to 300 aliases, create up to 30 in a day, have up to 2000 messages forwarded in a day, and send up to 200 replies in a day. Mail above the daily forwarding limit is not thrown away: its senders are asked to try again later. If you need more, write to us.

A domain of your own

You can add up to 5 domains of your own (1 during the free trial) and make aliases at them. By adding a domain you confirm that it is yours to use. From the moment its records are in place, all mail for that domain is sent to us, and mail for addresses you have not made aliases for is refused, unless you switch on that domain's catch-all, which makes an alias for any new name that is written to. You can remove a domain at any time; its aliases go with it. If someone else later shows that they control the domain, it leaves your account.

What you must not do

• Send spam or bulk mail through an alias, or use aliases to open accounts elsewhere in bulk.
• Use the service for anything unlawful, or to harass, defraud or impersonate anyone.
• Create accounts by automated means, or take more than one free trial.
• Try to get around the limits above, or to break into, overload or disrupt the service.
• Resell the service, or hand out aliases to other people as a service of your own.

We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, or that puts the service or other people at risk. Where we reasonably can, we tell you first and give you the chance to put things right. If we close an account because it broke these terms, payments are not refunded. If we close it for any other reason, we refund the part of the period you have paid for and not used.

Your mail and your data

Mail for your aliases is handled by software and is not read by people. The privacy policy says what is kept about it, and for how long.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account at any time on the Account page. Its aliases stop accepting mail for good and are never given to anyone else, its records are erased, and any subscription is cancelled. Deleting an account does not by itself bring a refund.

If the service ends

If we decide to stop offering PhantomShield, we email you at least 60 days ahead, keep forwarding your mail during that time so that you can move your accounts to other addresses, and refund the part of any period you have paid for and not used.

What we are responsible for

The service is provided as it is. As far as the law allows, we give no guarantees about it beyond what these terms say, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss caused by mail that was delayed, refused, put in the wrong place or not delivered. Our total liability to you in connection with the service is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose. Nothing in these terms limits liability that the law does not allow to be limited.

Changes to these terms

We may change these terms. If a change matters to you, we email you at least 30 days before it takes effect. If you do not accept it, you can cancel before then. Carrying on using the service after it takes effect means that you accept it.

Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Maryland, United States, whatever its rules about which state's law applies would otherwise say. Disputes go to the state and federal courts in Maryland, and you and we accept their authority. If you are a consumer and the law where you live gives you protections that cannot be signed away, you keep them, including any right to bring a claim in your home courts.

Contact

PhantomShield LLC. Questions about these terms: support@phantomshield.com.