# Is "Cloaked" (purported data removal service) for real or an utter scam? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 20, 2026, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cloaked-purported-data-removal-service-for-real-or-an-utter-scam/1031807 "2026-07-20T15:25:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2026, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cloaked-purported-data-removal-service-for-real-or-an-utter-scam/1031807/21 "2026-07-22T05:40:05Z")
There’s a similar service Incogni that sponsors a ton of different Youtubers. I found this video helpful in going through exactly how Incogni claims to work and how it’s less useful than it claims to be: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/JFI1CfnDJxY/maxresdefault.jpg "Why Incogni Might Be YouTube's Worst Sponsor") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFI1CfnDJxY) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2026, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cloaked-purported-data-removal-service-for-real-or-an-utter-scam/1031807/22 "2026-07-22T13:07:30Z")
ISTM there’s a useful distinction to be made between: - This is a purely criminal scam to take your money and do nothing at all for you. Except maybe steal your identity. and - This is a practically useless service that really does try to do what they promise, but the actual need for that thing, and your actual benefit from them doing it for you as poorly as they do are negligible. But at least they’re expensive. and - This is a service that does what it promises and that confers actual meaningful benefit to you on a regular basis at a commensurate price. I’d put all these sorts of identity protection services in that second category. At best. Which to me says their scams-lite. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2026, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cloaked-purported-data-removal-service-for-real-or-an-utter-scam/1031807/23 "2026-07-22T17:22:25Z")
Thanks for the detailed explanation. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2026, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cloaked-purported-data-removal-service-for-real-or-an-utter-scam/1031807/24 "2026-07-22T23:12:30Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > as long as it’s not too difficult, the hackers will do what’s necessary to figure out the real email and send spam directly to it. Now that Apple has supposedly fixed the problem a bit more information has been revealed about how it worked. As best I can decipher from this article, when an email is sent to the masking address, and that email is refused by Apple’s servers because it is spam, a trace is left in the _sending_ server’s logs that contains the hidden/real email address. Bad news is that mail server logs may be retained for a period of time, so hidden/real addresses may be sitting on servers until those logs are rotated out. A few pieces of good news, first lots of spammers don’t bother to keep logs, particularly if they’re using a botnet to send the spam. Just firehose it out, ignoring all errors and anything else that might slow down sending the next message. Second good news is that email server logs aren’t public, so the spammers can’t just scrape Reddit for hidden addresses or anything. Definitely a problem Apple needed to fix, and they should be embarrassed they let it persist for a year, but not terribly useful in unmasking any particular email address. > **[Apple Fixes Hide My Email Vulnerability After 404 Media Coverage](https://www.404media.co/apple-fixes-hide-my-email-vulnerability-after-404-media-coverage/)** > > For a year, Apple knew that an issue in its Hide My Email feature was exposing customers’ real email addresses. Apple only fixed the issue after 404 Media covered it. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2026, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cloaked-purported-data-removal-service-for-real-or-an-utter-scam/1031807/25 "2026-07-29T15:07:22Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > At times like this I usually type in “Is (fill in name of company) a scam” on search engines and look at the results. “Is Cloaked a scam” came back with tons of hits…pretty much all saying that it isn’t in the slightest. Glowing reviews from Trustpilot, BBB, Scam Detector, Linked In and many others give it a “thumbs up”. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t even do that. Seemed like a good way to read nothing but bot-composed glowing reviews. However, BBB and Linked In and Trustpilot…it’s easy I would guess to verify that they’re NOT bot-compost posts. Sage words from The Chicken of Bristol !!! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cloaked-purported-data-removal-service-for-real-or-an-utter-scam/1031807/26 "2026-08-03T00:55:40Z")
Firefox has a feature like this built in that I use. (Though you can use it with other browsers.) You get 50 fake emails on the free tier. > **[Firefox Relay](https://relay.firefox.com/)** > > ⁨Firefox Relay⁩ makes it easy to create email masks that forward your messages to your true inbox. Use them to protect your online accounts from hackers and unwanted messages. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cloaked-purported-data-removal-service-for-real-or-an-utter-scam/1031807.md?page=1)