How to stop spam emails: 9 habits that actually work
Nobody gets to zero spam. Once your address is out there, it gets copied, sold and guessed. What you can do is cut down how often you hand it out, and make the leftovers easy to deal with. Here's what makes the biggest difference, roughly in order.
1. Stop giving your main address to everyone
Most spam starts with a form you filled in yourself. A contest, a coupon popup, a "free" webinar. Before you type your email, ask yourself whether you need to hear from this company again. If the answer is no, use a temporary email for it.
2. Keep a second address for shopping and newsletters
Some things you do want to keep, like order confirmations and the two newsletters you actually read. Give those their own address, or use a Gmail plus alias. Your personal inbox stays for people you know.
3. Unsubscribe from real companies
If an email comes from a brand you recognize and you signed up at some point, the unsubscribe link is safe, and it works. Gmail and Outlook even show an "Unsubscribe" button next to the sender's name for most bulk mail.
4. …but never from obvious scams
If you've never heard of the sender, or the email is a "you've won" or "your account is locked" message, don't click anything, unsubscribe links included. Clicking confirms your address is active and gets you more of the same. Mark it as spam and move on.
5. Actually press "Report spam"
Deleting a message makes it go away. Reporting it teaches the filter. Both Gmail and Outlook learn from what you flag, and so does everyone else on the service, so a few seconds of reporting pays off quickly.
6. Turn off automatic image loading
Many marketing emails contain an invisible image that tells the sender when you opened the message. Gmail proxies images, which helps, but in Outlook and most other apps you can switch off automatic image loading in the settings. Fewer "opened" signals means fewer follow-ups.
7. Don't post your address in public
Bots scrape websites, forums and social profiles looking for anything shaped like an email. If you need to share it publicly, write it as name at domain dot com, or use a contact form instead.
8. Use filters for the stuff that slips through
If the same kind of junk keeps getting past the spam filter, write a rule for it. Filter by sender domain, or by a word in the subject line that only ever shows up in junk. Five minutes of setup saves a lot of daily deleting.
9. Check whether your address was in a breach
If spam suddenly jumps, your address may have leaked in a data breach. Look it up on Have I Been Pwned. If it shows up, change the password on that site and anywhere else you reused it, and turn on two-factor authentication.
A setup that works for most people
- Personal address: friends, family, banks, work. Never typed into random forms.
- Plus aliases: shops, newsletters and apps you plan to keep, one tag per site.
- Temporary email: everything you'll never need again.
It takes a week or two to get used to. After that you'll mostly just notice how quiet your inbox has become.