How To Stop Getting Spam Emails? 5 Simple Strategies

How To Stop Getting Spam Emails? 

Spam messages are believed to account for nearly 30% of email traffic worldwide. Most of the spam you might receive are inoffensive–albeit annoying–advertising messages and promotions. However, a small but significant percentage of spam emails are malicious. Fraudsters use these communications to unleash phishing attacks or expose you to malware. There are several strategies for minimizing spam and boosting your online safety you may want to take into consideration.

Flag the email as spam

Reporting problematic emails will help you block future spam. It essentially helps your mailbox to better identify spam addresses and filter them more effectively. Here’s what to do:

On Gmail

1. Open your Gmail account.

2. Check the box to the left of the spam email you’d like to report.

3. Go to the mailbox toolbar and select “report spam” (the stop sign icon).

On Outlook

1. Open your Outlook account.

2. Right-click the spam email you’d like to report.

3. Select “Report” and then “Report junk”.

On Apple Email

1. Open the Apple Mail app.

2. Click the spam email you’d like to report.

3. Select the Junk Mail icon in the mailbox toolbar (next to the bin icon).

Block spam senders

You can also block the email addresses that have been sending you spam.

On Gmail

1. Open your Gmail account and check the box of the spam message whose sender you wish to block.

2. Go to the top of your inbox, click the three vertical dots, and select “Filter messages like these”.

3. On the new pop-up, click on “Create filter”.

4. Select “Delete” from the list of actions and click on “Create filter again.”

On Outlook

1. Open your outlook account.

2. Right-click the spam email whose sender you wish to block.

3. Scroll to “Security Options” and click on “Block Sender”.

On Apple Mail

1. Open the Apple Mail app.

2. Select the spam email whose sender you wish to block.

3. In the email’s header, click the arrow next to the sender’s name.

4. Select “Block Contact”.

Unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters

At some point, while making a purchase or signing up for a service, you may have subscribed to a monthly newsletter or mailing list. This might be one of the reasons why you’re receiving so much spam.

To stop receiving these messages, open your email account and type “unsubscribe” in the search box. This will bring up all the newsletters and mailing lists you can opt out of. You just have to open them one by one and click on “unsubscribe” right at the bottom of the message.

Bear in mind that you won’t be successful in some cases, as companies make it extremely challenging to unsubscribe from their communications nowadays.

Use an alternative email address

As mentioned above, the email address you’ve been using to make online purchases, sign up for services, or even download files can end up on spam lists. To clear up your inbox, create an alternative email address that you’ll use to specifically communicate with friends and family, and for work-related purposes.

Remove yourself from information-collecting sites

Information brokers are companies that collect your personal information from various sources. Not only does this include your email address but also your name, physical address, phone number, occupation, and browsing and buying habits, among other sensitive data. This allows information brokers to create a detailed picture of you, which they later sell to marketing, risk mitigation, and people searching parties and/or other brokers.

It is possible to retrieve your information from these information-collecting sites by sending opt-out requests. However, as there are reportedly up to 4000 such companies operating online, this may be a time-consuming process. An alternative would be using automated data removal services, which can speed up the process.

For more information on automated data removal tools and helpful ways to remove your information from the Internet, check out this helpful resource.

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