UPDATED February 10, 2022 This piece has been updated to reflect the emergence of new technology
Christian Mathews Security Writer
Emails have become the mainstream mode of communication in this digital era. It is hard to imagine your life without emails. Emails are probably the first thing and the last thing you check in a day, lest you miss something important. But with it comes the slew of spam emails, which leaves many asking “How do you stop spam emails?”. We’ll answer this and more below. If you are looking for a way to secure all your data; get a Secure External hard drive, and start regularly backing up.
Beyond being a nuisance, there is the possibility for phishing emails to get private information and viruses that can affect your computer. It’s good to know about computer viruses and how they work, in order to further protect yourself and your computer.
How To Block Spam Emails?
There are no convenient steps to handle spam emails. Once you have registered an email id and have started using it, there will be a continuous influx of emails that originate from all parts of your life. The only way to weed out the unnecessary ones is to block them. How do you stop spam emails? Follow this guide to know-how and make your inbox spam-free.
Training Your Spam Filter
The first step is to train the spam filter of the email application you are using. Whenever you select an email, you get choices to delete, archive, or mark it as spam. If you’re using Gmail, just select the email(s) you need to indicate as spam and press the Report Spam icon on the top.
This Report Spam helps Gmail and other email service providers identify spam emails. So, the next time when you will receive any such email, it will automatically be redirected to your spam bolder.
In case you are using the Mac or Outlook email application, you will find a Junk option after selecting one or more emails. Pressing it will move the email(s) to the Junk folder, and the system will treat incoming emails from this sender as spam in future instances.
Block Spam Email Addresses
This is another way to train your email application to prevent undesirable emails from landing in your inbox. After you open an email and review its contents, you decide that blocking the sender will help declutter your inbox in the coming times.
All you have to do is click the triple-dotted symbol at the right-hand side of the sender’s email id details. From the options displayed, select the one that says Block “<sender>”. This will train the system to understand that emails from this email id are undesirable, and from the next time, the system will directly divert any future emails from this id to the spam folder.
This process has been explained here using the Gmail application. You will find a similar option to Block Sender if you’re using the Outlook email. If you’re using the Mac email, you will have to go to the Preferences section and add a Rule to divert the emails from the sender to Junk.
Unsubscribe From Mailing Lists
Many times, it is observed that your email id is added to mailing lists without your consent. These mailing lists could be from a genuine marketer or, at times, could be part of a phishing or scamming campaign.
Irrespective of its origin, you may not be interested in being added to the list as the mails continue to spam your inbox. Continuing with the Gmail system, you will detect that every mail originating from a mailing list has an Unsubscribe option. It is either available at the top, beside the sender’s email address, or at the bottom of the email or both the places. Clicking this option sends an intimation to the sender for un-subscription. This process is common for all email service providers.
Protect Your Email Address
You should always give careful thought before you decide to share your email address with anyone since it could end up at the hands of a spammer. On the other hand, today’s businesses are coming up with lucrative offers that are made available only after your registration on their site with your email address.
Let us even consider a scenario when you registered on a website with your email to make a one-time purchase. Rest assured, you are bound to receive lots of emails from these sites once you share your email with them. The question to be asked then is how to get past this issue. And the answer is simple. You need to segregate your personal and work email addresses so that these do not receive junk emails.
Use A Secondary Email Address For Promotions/Downloads
To obtain the benefits of marketing campaigns that provide special discounts or make yourself eligible for free downloads, you almost always need to share your email address. There is a simple solution to get past this.
Just create an alternate email address and use it only for these purposes. In this case, you will get access to the benefits by registering with this alternate email address, and at the same time, you will have ensured that all undesirable emails are being received at this email address. This way, your primary email addresses will not get affected.
Avoid Email Visibility On Websites And Social Media Channels
Whenever you create an account on any website or social media platform, you have to register using your email address. If your email address is visible to the public on these platforms, then anyone can take note of your email address and send you undesirable emails.
Every social platform has the setting option to hide your contact details. Using this setting is one of the ways to avoid email visibility on websites and social media channels. The other option is to use a secondary email address to register on these platforms.
Conclusion
Knowing how do you stop spam emails requires pro-activeness on your part because it is very difficult to avoid sharing your email address for multiple purposes. Even though governments worldwide are working on bringing in stricter measures to prevent cybercrimes, it is still a known fact that email addresses are available to be bought at astonishingly cheap rates.
There is no doubt that a lot of development is taking place to protect user privacy, but at the end of the day, you need to take steps to protect yourself from getting spam emails.
Many businesses and individuals are using additional safeguards in the form of firewalls. Not sure what do firewalls do, in short they create a barrier between your computer and the internet.
