Spam: the bane of every email user’s existence and almost half of daily correspondence. Somehow, these pesky messages end up in your inbox instead of your spam folder, regardless of how often you delete them. Don’t let frustration get the best of you! Instead, follow these guidelines to beef up your cybersecurity, reduce the amount of spam in your inbox, and permanently block spam emails and send it to your spam folder.
1. Block Email Addresses of Frequent Offenders
Over time, a number of culprits appear in your inbox day in and day out. A pattern will emerge, and you’ll be able to recognize any that fit it. These annoying messages can easily be removed from your inbox.
How do I block email addresses worthy only of a spam folder?
You can reduce or stop spam by manually blocking specific spam email addresses:
- Via email setting. This works if you’ve already opened an email and realized that it’s spam or it’s from a person you don’t wish to communicate with by email. Most email clients will have a Block Sender button in the email menu. For example, in Gmail and Outlook, it will look like a down-pointing arrow in the top right corner of the email window. When you click on it, you’ll find the words “Block” and the name of the sender in quotation marks.
- Via the Settings menu. For some email clients, like Yahoo Mail, you’ll need to access Setting first and find the tab for blocked email addresses. But before that, copy the offensive email address into a clipboard or a notepad, so you can add it to the list in Settings.
- By creating a filter. For email clients like ProtonMail, you can only block an email address by creating a filter. However, filters can be used not only for specific email addresses but also for what you would consider a stop word. You can stop spam emails from incoming by creating a filter for a word or phrase (for example, “eBay”), and any email (from the official website or other email addresses) containing the word will be automatically sent to the Bin.
After you block an email address, you should stop getting spam emails from them. They will be automatically deleted.
Note: If you’re using Mailbird and if you block an email address via the webmail client of your email provider, it’s blocked in Mailbird as well.
2. Don’t Sign Up with Your “Real” Email Address
Prevention is the best medicine, and a sure way to prevent spam emails is keeping your real email — personal or business — away from websites that could potentially fill your inbox with junk. Spam messages aside, having multiple email addresses has a lot of benefits.
Create a junk mail address
By far the easiest way to significantly reduce or even stop spam emails from reaching your primary accounts is to create a “junk” email address. Instead of allowing websites to contact you via your personal or business email — where you regularly communicate with colleagues, friends, and family — set up an email specifically for signing up on websites. Separating these two types of electronic interactions will allow you to keep the amount of spam to a minimum.
Create a temporary email address
If creating a separate email address reserved purely for spam messages sounds bizarre to you, another way to shield yourself from unwanted emails is a temporary inbox. Services, such as Temp Mail, FakeMail, and EmailOnDeck, are useful when you are, for example, testing websites and services you don’t intend to use, or you need to acquire information from a website that doesn’t seem secure.
With these services, you can create a disposable email address in just a couple of steps and just as easily through it away. No need to disclose your personal details on the Internet.
And read the fine print
Investigate the little checkboxes under registration forms where you “Agree to Terms and Conditions” and whatever else they hid there.
In addition to using a junk email, remember to uncheck the “subscribe to newsletter” box when you sign up with a new site. This small, easy step greatly reduces the number of spam emails you receive, from the beginning. Limiting the amount of communication prior to signing up for a website helps mitigate the potentially overwhelming amount of junk.
3. Set Up Spam Folder Filters to Block Spam Emails
The third option for how to block junk email addresses is setting up spam filters. Most email programs allow you to set up different inboxes. More or less, it gives you the ability to separate email by importance or sender. This allows you to mark the most time-sensitive emails and receive them all in one place — without the extra clutter of spam.
These filters are created using keywords. Compiling comprehensive mailing lists is easy. Take a look at the spam folder email you currently receive and scan it for common or recurring keywords. Enter those phrases and terms into the filter, save, and you’re all set. These emails will no longer arrive in your inbox! In addition to reducing the amount of spam, this technique organizes your emails in a very accessible manner. You’ll never miss a bill again. So, if you want to block spam emails from your inbox, follow this simple technique.
4. Unsubscribe from Newsletters You Don’t Read
Yes, it is quite a tedious task, but it’s well worth the effort if you want to block spam emails from your inbox. Going through each individual email and unsubscribing is time-consuming but very effective. If you don’t have a lot of time to dedicate, just unsubscribe each time an undesirable email arrives in your inbox:
- Use the Unsubscribe button
The simplest way to tackle it is to use the Unsubscribe button in your Mailbird right in front of the sender’s name.
- Use the search option
An alternative way is to head to the search bar and type “unsubscribe.” This pulls up all emails with an unsubscribe link. Scroll through the list and unsubscribe at will!
Please note, if you find an email from a sender you know you didn’t subscribe to, do NOT unsubscribe from it. Clicking that link will alert the spammer that it’s an active email address. In turn, the spammer will continue bombarding you. Instead of unsubscribing yourself, you’ve essentially subscribed to a whole host of junk. If you accidentally unsubscribe from one of these emails, don’t worry! Simply follow the next step.
5. Always Report Spam
While unsubscribing from undesirable messages is certainly effective, it doesn’t always provide a feeling of satisfaction. Reporting a message gives you that feeling, and it’s very helpful to your email provider. It submits data to the developers to improve user experience. It also sheds light on how spammers evolve with new email security updates within the system. When you feel like you’ve tried everything under the sun to remove spam, hitting the Report Spam button is a phenomenal way to work around that issue and redirect the offensive email addresses away from your inbox.
- Open the offensive email.
- Find the Report spam button and click it.
- Or select the offensive email in your inbox.
- Click on the Report Spam button so such messages go straight to the Spam folder.
Now any spam messages from that email address will land straight into Spam.
6. Change Your Email on Public Forums
When posting on online classified sections or other public forums, always alter your email slightly. Spambots crawl public forums for viable email addresses, and if yours is readable, you could be added to new junk mailing lists.
For example, if your email is Malia@Newcompany.com, type it as _Malia_at_Newcompany_dot_com, along with a note to remove the underscores.
Underscores and other special characters cannot be “translated” by these bots. By changing your email to remain legible to humans but not spambots, you’ll reduce the amount of junk mail associated with your public post.
Wrap Up
While spam emails can be downright irritating, taking proper precautions as soon as you sign up for a website will greatly reduce the amount of mail you receive from that site. The reduction in clutter comes with a sense of ease and organization in your inbox. Use Mailbird’s unsubscribe feature to block spam emails and increase your happiness and cybersecurity!
How do I stop spam emails permanently?
Here are six important anti-spam measures you can take when using your email account!
1. Block email addresses of frequent offenders.
2. Don’t sign up with your real email address.
3. Set up spam filters.
4. Unsubscribe from newsletters you don’t read.
5. Always report spam.
6. Change your email on public forums.
What is the best email spam blocker?
SpamBully, SpamSieve, and MailWasher Pro are the best four email spam filters that can be used in conjunction with the email apps you are already using. However, none of these spam blockers are free.
How do I block spam in Gmail?
The 4 easy steps to block offensive emails and email addresses in Gmail are:
1.On your computer, go to your Gmail.
2. Open the email.
3. In the top right corner, click More.
4. Select Block sender
Is it possible to block spam emails?
Yes. With Mailbird you can set up filters to delete spam emails before they clutter your inbox, unsubscribe from useless newsletters, and add a separate account for potentially junk emails.
