How to Block Unwanted Email

Spam and unsolicited emails are big annoyances to email users. If your email address falls into the wrong hands even once, it can be sold and resold to marketers who tend to flood email addresses with ads, irrelevant requests for money and other types of spam. Most email accounts come with an automatic junk mail filter, but even these don't catch all kinds of unsolicited emails. Fortunately, there are two ways to manually block unwanted emails.

Instructions

1. Block individual email addresses. If you are using an email client computer program to view your mail (such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird), simply right-click on the email and press "block sender." If you are using a Web email account, try right-clicking. If you don't get an option for blocking the sender here, go to your "Email Options" section. You will find a blocked sender list here that you can add to and edit at will.

2. If you are looking for a broader solution, create one or more new folders where you wish to direct the unwanted emails. This is useful for separating emails with different subjects or senders. You can set your email account to automatically send certain emails directly to these folders.

3. Set your email filters. You can create email filters based on subject, the sender's email address and several other options. To set these filters, open your email client program or go to your Web email account. If you use an email program, you will have an "Email Rules" or "Message Rules" section (most often in the "Tools" menu). Most Web email accounts will have an "Email Options" section. Once you have entered these sections, you will be able to add custom filters to direct your emails where you want them to go.

References

• Blocking Emails #1
• Blocking Emails #2