How to Stop Email Spamming

Spam email is often placed into the "Junk" email folder.

Email spam is a global problem and a large percentage of email users are affected by it. Over three quarters of all email sent is considered to be spam. There are several ways of combating spam and reducing the amount which you receive. Some email providers have better spam fighting policies in place than others.

Instructions

1. Understand where most spammers get your email address from. Spam email "spiders" crawl the Internet looking for email addresses; these are often exposed on forums and other community websites. Always be careful where you are posting your email address. If you are posting it on message forums change the format to name [@] (provider) [dot] (com) to make it harder for spam email spiders to detect it.

2. Consider changing your email provider to a web based one. Google mail or "Gmail" offer free web based email with advanced spam detection techniques. A Gmail account will automatically detect a large percentage of spam emails and prevent them from getting through to your inbox.

3. Increase your junk email settings if you are using an email client such as Outlook. Go into the options menu and find the "Junk email" settings, increase the protection and consider only accepting emails from addresses in your contacts list.

4. Look for unsubscribe links in the emails. Some unwanted emails may be legitimately sent even if you don't want to receive them. If this is the case look for the unsubscribe link which is usually found at the bottom of the email.

5. Consider using a disposable email address service such as "Mailinator." These services are ideal when you are signing up to a website that you suspect may send you spam email.

Tips & Warnings

• Never click the unsubscribe link from an email if you don't recognize the sender. It could be a malicious website. It is also possible that the link when register your email address as an "active" email account and be flagged to send more spam email to it.

References

• Gmail Help: How is spam handled?
• Spam Links: Spam Stats
• Mailinator: Let Them Eat Spam!

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish